
Qass. 
Book 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 




HARBOR 



The Gallant Deeds 

of 

Our Naval Heroes 



TOLD FOR BOYS AND GIRLS 

Inclu ding the Adventures of Captain Paul Jones, 
Commodore Perry, C ommodore Decatur. Admiral 
Farragut, Admiral Dewey, and many others of 
America's Brav e Sailors who \A^on Glory in 
Battles at Home and Abroad ; also the Story of 
the Ships made Famous by Great Battles and 
Great Captains. 



THE THRILLING STOR.Y OF AMER^ICA'S NAVY 



\ 



-BY- 



CHARLES MORRIS, LL.D. 

Author of the "Child's History of the United States," "The Child's Story of the 
Nineteenth Century," "Life of William McKinley," Etc. 



One Hundred Beautiful Illustrations and Color 
Plates, every page Illustrated with Emblematic 

Designs. 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

■T>*o CowEB ReoBvtc 

OCT. 23 190? 

^ CnfMJMHT WTHV 
duASS «- XX& Ho. 

3 i. 1 1 5 

COPY'S. 



Entered according to Act of 
Cort gress in tKe year 1902 by 
W. E. SC VLL, in the office 
of the Librarian of Congress, 

at Washington. D. C. . 

All Rights Reserved 



i' 



PREFACE 



E live in a land of heroes. If there is any one 
thing for which a true son of America is always 
ready, it is for a deed of heroism. We have 
among us heroes of the workshop, of the railroad, of 
jfield, forest and city, heroes of land and heroes of water, 
heroes in war and heroes in peace. When the time 
comes for any deed of valor to be done the American 
ready and able to do it will not be found wanting. It 
is not glory the gallant son of our land is seeking. It 
is to do his duty in whatever situation he is placed, 
whether high or low, on quarter-deck or forecastle. He 
does not stop to think of fame. To act bravely for his 
fellows or his country is the thing for him to do, and he 
does it in face of every peril. 

The history of the United States is one full of the 
names of heroes. They stand out like the stars on our 
flag. It is not our purpose to boast. The world has 
had its heroes in all times and countries. But our land 
holds a high rank among heroic nations, and deeds of 
gallant daring have been done by Americans which no 
men upon the earth have surpassed. 

This book is the record of our heroes of the sea, of 
the men who have fought bravely upon the ocean for 













the honor of the stars and stripes, the noble tars who 
have carried their country's fame over all waters and 
through all wars. Look at Paul Jones, the most gal- 
lant sailor who ever trod deck ! He was not born on 
our soil, but he was a true-blue American for all that. 
Look at Perry, rowing from ship to ship amid the rain 
of British shot and shell ! Look at Farragut in the 
civil war, facing death in the rigging that he might see 
the enemy ! Look at Dewey in the war with Spain, on 
the bridge amid the hurtling Spanish shells ! These 
are but types of our gallant sailors. They have had 
their equals in every war. We have hundreds to-day 
as brave. All they wait for is opportunity. When the 
time comes they will be ready. 

If all our history is an inspiration, our naval history 
is specially so. It is full of thrilling tales, stories of 
desperate deeds and noble valor which no work of fic- 
tion can surpass. We are sure that all who take up this 
book will find it vital with interest and brimming with 
inspiration. Its tales deal with men who fought for 
their land with only a plank between them and death, 
and none among us can read the story of their deeds 
without a thrill in the nerves and a stir in the heart, and 
without a wish that some time they may be able to do 
as much for the land that gave them birth. This is a 
book for the American boy to read, and the American 
girl as well, a book to fill them with the spirit of emula- 
tion and make them resolve that when the time comes 
they will act their part bravely in the perilous work of 
the world. 



IV 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 
First Sea Fight of the Revoi^ution. 
The Burning of the '* Gaspee " in Narragansett Bay , . 



. . 17 



CHAPTER II. 

A British Schooner Captured by Farmers. 

Captain Jerry O'Brien Leads the Patriots of 1775 24 



•CHAPTER III. 
Benedict Arnoi,d the Soi.dier-Sailor. 
A Novel Fight on Lake Champlain 

CHAPTER IV. 
Captain Paui< Jones. 
The Greatest of America's Naval Heroes 



31 



#* * ^ * 



i 



39 



CHAPTER V. 



How Paui, Jones Won Renown. 
The First Great Fight of the American Navy . . 



■^ -^^ 



47 



'is 



iSJlr— 



^^4 



4 




CHAPTER VI. 

PAGE 

Captain Bushnell Scares the British. 
The Pioneer Torpedo Boat and the Battle of the Kegs ... 58 

CHAPTER VII. 

Captain Barry and his Row Boats Win a Victory 
Over the British. 

A Gallant Naval Hero of Irish Blood 65 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Captain Tucker Honored by George Washington. 
The Daring Adventures of the Hero of Marblehead 73 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Last Navai. Battle of the Revolution. 

The Heroic Captain Barney in the " Hyder Ali " Captures 79 
the ' ' General Monk " 

CHAPTER X. 

The Moorish Pirates of the Mediterranean. 
Our Navy Teaches them a Lesson in Honor 85 

CHAPTER XI. 

The Young Decatur and his Brilliant Deeds at 
Tripoli. 

How our Navy Began and Ended a Foreign War 92 

vi 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



CHAPTER XII. 



vn 



The GalIvAnt Oi,d ' ' Ironsides ' ' and how She Whipped 

the "guerriere." 

A Famous Incident of the War of 1812 104 



CHAPTER XIII. 

A Famous Vessei. Saved by a Poem. 

Old "Ironsides" Wins New Glory 114 

.CHAPTER XIV. 

The Fight of Captain Jacob Jones. 

The Lively Little ' ' Wasp ' ' and how She Stung the ' ' Frolic. " 1 25 

CHAPTER XV. 

Captain Lawrence Dies for the Flag. 

His words — ' ' Do not give up the ship ' ' — Become the Famous 

Motto of the American Navy . . . . ; 133 



CHAPTER XVI. 
Commodore Perry Whips the British on Lake Erie. 
" We have met the enemy and they are ours." 140 



D 












'<$ 



CHAPTER XVII. 

PACK 

Commodore Porter Gains Glory in the Pacific. 
The Gallant Fight of the " Essex " against Great Odds. . . 149 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Commodore MacDonough's Victory on LakeChamplain. 
How General Prevost and the British Ran Away 157 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Four Naval Heroes in One Chapter. 

Fights with the Pirates of the Gulf and the Corsairs of the 

Mediterranean 163 

CHAPTER XX. 

Commodore Perry Opens Japan to the World. 

A Heroic Deed without Bloodshed 170 

CHAPER XXI. 
Captain Ingram Teaches Austria a Lesson. 

Our Navy Upholds the Rights of an American in a Foreign 

Land 178 

CHAPTER XXII. 
The "Monitor" and the " Merrimac." 

A Fight which Changed all Naval Warfare 183 

viii 




TABLE OF CONTENTS ix 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

PACK 

Commodore Farragut wins Renown. 
.^*he Hero of Mobile Bay Lashes Himself to the Mast . . . .192 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

A River Fleet in a Hail op Fire. 

Admiral Porter Disguises his Boat and Runs by the Forts . . 203 

CHAPTER XXV. 
The Sinking of the "Albemarle." 
Gushing 's Torpedo Boat Performs the Most Gallant Deed of 

the Civil War 210 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

How THE ' ' Gloucester ' ' Revenged the Sinking of 

THE "Maine" 
Deadly and Heroic Deeds in the War with Spain 217 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

The Great Victory of Manila Bay. 

Dewey Destroys a Fleet Without Losing a Man 221 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

HoBSON and the Sinking of the " Merrimac." 

A Heroic Deed Worthy of the American Navy 228 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

Sampson and Schley Win Renown. 

The Greatest Sea Fight of the Century 234 




The "Chicago," one of the modern war ships of the United States Navy. 



CHAPTER I. 



The First 5ea Fight of the Revolution 

THE BURNING OF THE "GASPEE" IN NARRAGANSETT BAY 

D""^OES It not seem an odd fact that little Rhode 
Island, the smallest of all our States, should 
I ' have two capital cities, while all the others, 
some of which would make more than a thousand 
Rhode Islands, have only one apiece ? It is like the 
old story of the dwarf beating the giants. 

The tale we have to tell has to do with these two 
cities. Providence and Newport, whose story goes back 
far into the days when Rhode Island and all the others 
were British colonies. They were capitals then and 
they are capitals still. That is, they were places where 
the legislature met, and the laws were made. 

I need not tell you anything about the British 
Stamp Act, the Boston Tea-party, the fight at Lexing- 
ton, and the other things that led to the American 
Revolution, and brought freedom to the colonies. All 
this you have learned at school. But I am sure you 
will be interested in what we may call the "salt-water 
Lexington," the first fight between the British and the 
bold sons of the colonies. 

There was at that time a heavy tax on all goods 
brought into the country, and even on goods taken 
from one American town to another. It was what we 
now call a revenue duty, or tariff. This tax the Ameri- 
cans did not like to pay. They were so angry at the 

17 




^ 



<s 








•r 

way they had been treated by England that they did 
not want that country to have a penny of their money. 
Nor did they intend to pay any tax. 

Do you ask how they could help paying the tax ? 
They had one way of doing so. Vessels laden with 
goods were brought to the coast at night, or in places 
where there was no officer of the revenue. Then in all 
haste they unloaded their cargoes and were away again 
like flitting birds. The British did not see half the 
goods that came ashore and lost much in the way of 
taxes. 

We call this kind of secret trade smuggling. 
Providence and Newport were great smuggling places. 
Over the green waters of Narragansett Bay small craft 
sped to and fro, coming to shore by night or in secret 
places and landing their goods. It was against the 
law. but the bold mariners cared little for laws made in 
England. They said that they were quite able to 
govern themselves, and that no people across the seas 
should make laws for them. 

The British did their best to stop this kind of 
trade. They sent armed vessels to the Bay, whose 
business it was to chase and search every craft that 
might have smuggled goods in its hold, and to punish 
in some way every smuggler they found. 

Some of these vessels made themselves very busy, 
and sailors and shoremen alike were bitter against 
them. They would bring in prizes to Newport, and 
their sailors would swagger about the streets, bragging 
of what they had done and making sport of the 
Yankees. They would kidnap sailors and carry them 

i8 



FIRST SEA FIGHT 



19 



off to serve in the King's ships. One vessel came 
ashore at Newport whose crew had been months at 
sea, trading on the African coast. Before a man of 
them could set foot on land, or see any of the loved 
ones at home from whom they had been parted so long, a 
press-gang from a British ship-of-war seized and carried 
off the whole crew, leaving the captain alone on his deck. 

We may be sure that all this made the people very 
indignant. While the rest of the country was quiet the 
Newporters were at the point of war. More than once 
they were ready to take arms against the British, 

In July, 1769, a British armed sloop, the Liberty, 
brought in two prizes as smugglers. They had no 
smuggled goods on board, but the officers of the 
Liberty did not care for that. And their captains and 
crews were treated as if they were prisoners of war. 

That night something new took place. The look- 
out on the Liberty saw two boats crowded with men, 
gliding swiftly toward the sloop. 

" Boat ahoy ! " he shouted. 

Not a word came in reply. 

'• Boat ahoy ! Answer, or I'll fire ! " 

No answer still. The lookout fired. The watch 
came rushing up on deck. But at the same time the 
men in the boats climbed over the bulwarks and the 
sailors of the Liberty iowndi themselves looking into the 
muzzles of guns. They were taken by surprise and had 
to yield. The Americans had captured their first prize. 

Proud of their victory, the Newporters cut the 
cables of the sloop and let her drift ashore. Her 
captives were set free, her mast was cut down, and her 
boats were dragged through the streets to the common, 



D 





where they were set on fire, A jolly bonfire they 
made too, and as the flames went up the people cheered 
lustily. 

That was not all. With the high tide the sloop 
floated off. But it went ashore again on Goat Island, 
and the next night some of the people set it on fire and 
it was burned to the water's edge. 

That was the first American reply to British 
tyranny. The story of it spread far and wide. The 
King's officers did all they could to find and punish 
the men who had captured the sloop, but not a man of 
them could be discovered. Everybody in the town knew 
but no one would tell. 

This was only the beginning. The great event 
was that of the Gaspee. This was a British schooner 
carrying six cannon, which cruised about the Bay be- 
tween Providence and Newport, and made itself so 
busy and so offensive that the people hated it more 
than all those that had gone before. Captain Dud- 
dingstone treated every vessel as if it had been a pirate, 
and the people were eager to give it the same dose 
they had given the Liberty. 

Their time came in June, 1772. The Hannah, a 
vessel trading between New York and Providence, came 
in sight of the Gaspee and was ordered to stop. But Cap- 
tain Linzee had a fine breeze and did not care to lose it. 
He kept on at full speed, and the Gaspee set out in chase. 

It was a very pretty race that was seen that day 
over the ruffled waters of the Bay. For twenty-five 
miles it kept up and the Hannah was still ahead. Then 
the two vessels came near to Providence bar. 



FIRST SEA FIGHT 



21 



The Yankee captain now played the Britishers a 
cute trick. He slipped on over the bar as if there had 
been a mile of water under his keel. The Gaspee, not 
knowing that the Hannah had almost touched bottom, 
followed and in a minute more came bump upon the 
ground. The proud war-A^essel stuck fast in the mud, 
while the light-footed Yankee slid swiftly on to Pro- 
vidence, where the story of the chase and escape was 
told to eager ears. 

Here was a splendid chance. The Gaspee was 
aground. Now was the time to repay Captain Dud- ^^j^ 
dingstone for his pride and insolence. That night, 
while the people, after their day's work, were standing 
and talking about the news, a man passed down the 
streets, beating a drum, and calling out : 

" The Gaspee is aground. Who will join in to put 
an end to her ?" 

There was no lack of volunteers. Eight large 
boats had been collected from the ships in the harbor, 
and there were soon enough to crowd them all. Sixty- 
four men were selected, and Abraham Whipple, who 
was afterward one of the first captains in the American 
navy, took command. Some of the men had guns, but 
their principal weapons were paving stones and clubs. 

It was about two o'clock in the morning when this 
small fleet came within hail of the Gaspee. She was 
fast enough yet, though she was beginning to lift with 
the rising tide. An hour or two more might have set 
her afloat. 

A sentinel who was pacing the deck hailed the 
boats when they came near. 





NICHOLAS BIDDLE, 

Commander of the "Randolph," 

which was one of the first 

boats authorized by 

Congress, 1775. 





"Who comes there?" he cried. 

A shower of paving stones that rattled on the deck 
of the Gaspee was the only answer. Up came the captain 
and crew, like bees from a hive that has been dis- 
turbed. 

" I want to come on board," said Captain Whipple. 

" Stand off. You can't come aboard," answered 
Captain Duddingstone. 

He fired a pistol. A shot from one of the guns 
on the boats replied. The British captain fell with a 
bullet in his side. 

" I am sheriff of the County of Kent," cried one of 
the leaders in the boats. " I am come for the captain 
of this vessel. Have him I will, dead or alive. Men, 
to your oars !" 

On came the boats, up the sides of the vessel 
clambered the men, over the rails they passed. The 
sailors showed fight, but they were soon knocked down 
and secured. The proud Gaspee was in the hands of 
the despised Yankees. 

As the captors were tying the crew, a surgeon who 
was in the boats was called on deck. 

"What do you want, Mr. Brown ?" he asked. 

" Don't call names, man," cried Brown. " Go into 
the cabin. There is a wounded man there who may 
bleed to death." 

The surgeon was needed, for Captain Duddingstone 
was bleeding freely. The surgeon, finding no cloth for 
bandages, tore his own shirt into strips for this pur- 
pose, and soon had the bleeding stopped. The captain 
was gently lowered into one of the boats and rowed up 
to Providence. 



THE FIRST FIGHT 



23 



The wounded man away, the captors began their 
work. Rushing through the vessel, they made havoc 
of furniture and trappings. There were some bottles 
of liquor in the captain's cabin, and some of the men 
made a rush for these ; but the suro^eon smashed them 
with the heels of his boots. That was not the time or 
place for drunken men. 

This done, the Gaspee was set on fire, and was 
soon wrapped in flames. The men rowed their boats 
some distance out, and there rested on their oars, 
watching the flames as they shot up masts and rigging. 
Not until the loaded guns went off, one after another, 
and in the end the magazine was reached and the ship 
blew up, did they turn their prows towards home. 
Never again would the Gaspee trouble American ships. 

When word of what had been done reached Eng- 
land there was fury from the King down. Great re- 
wards were offered for any one who would betray any 
of the party, but not a name was told. For six long 
months a court of inquiry sat, but it could not get evi- 
derice enough to convict a single man. The Ameri- 
cans were staunch and firm and stood for each other 
like brothers tried and true. 

Not until the colonies threw off the royal yoke and 
were battling for freedom was the secret told. Then 
the men of the long-boats did not hesitate to boast of 
what they had done. It was the first stroke of America 
in the cause of liberty, and the work of the men of 
Providence gave new heart to the patriots from Maine 
to Georgia. 




v/^ 



fi aB 




i 



CHAPTER 11. 

A British 5cliooner Captured by 
Farmers in 1775. 

CAPTAIN JERRY O'BRIEN LEADS THE PATRIOTS OF 1775. 

HOW would any of you like to go back to the days 
when people had only tallow candles to light 
J their houses and the moon to light their streets, 
when they traveled on horseback or by stage, and got 
their news only when it happened to come? In these 
days of the electric light, the railroad train and the 
telegraph that old way of living would not seem living 
at all. 

Yet that was the way people lived in 1775, when 
the Revolution began. It took weeks for news to travel 
then, where it takes seconds now. Thus the fight at 
Lexington, which began the Revolution, took place on 
April 19th, but it was May 9th, more than half a month 
later, before the news of it reached the little town of 
Machias, on the coast of Maine. We should hardly call 
that fast time. It must have taken several naps on 
the way. 

But when the news came it found the people ready 
for it. A coasting schooner put into the port and 
brought the story of how the patriots had fought and 
bled at Lexington and Concord, and of how the British 
were shut up in Boston town, and the country was at 
war. The news were received with ringing cheers. 
24 



A BRITISH SCHOONER CAPTURED 



25 



If any of my readers had been at Machias that day 
I know they would have felt like striking a blow for 
liberty. At any rate, that is how the people of Machias 
felt, and it did not take them long to show it. 

They had some reason not to like the King and his 
men. All the tall, straight trees in their woods were 
kept to make masts for the King's ships, and no wood- 
man dared set axe to one of these pine trees except at 
risk of going to prison. Just then there were two 
sloops in their harbor loading with ship-timber, and an 
armored schooner, the Margaretta, was there as a good 
looker-on. 

When the men on the wharf heard the story of 
Lexington, their eye fell on the Margaretta. Here was 
a chance to let King George know what they thought 
about his robbing their woods. 

"Keep this a secret," they said to the sailors. " Not 
a word of it to Captain Moore or his men. Wait till 
to-morrow and you will see some sport." 

That night sixty of the countrymen and townsmen 
met at a farm-house nearby and laid their plans. It was 
Saturday. On Sunday Captain Moore and his officers 
would go to church. Then they could gather at the 
wharf and might take the schooner by surprise. 

But it is often easier to make a plot than to keep it a 
secret, and that lesson they were to learn. The captain 
and his officers went to the little villaofe church at sound 
of the morning bell, the Margaretta lay lazily floating 
near the shore, and the plotters began to gather, two or 
three at a time, strolling down towards the shore, each 
of them carrying some weapon. 




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^^***1*^ 



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■i:?c?c? 



^x^-^** 



But in some way Captain Moore discovered their 
purpose. What bird in the air whispered to him the 
secret we do not know, but he suddenly sprang to his 
feet, called to his officers to follow him, and leaped like 
a cat through the church window, without waiting to go 
round by the door. We maybe sure the old-fashioned 
preacher and the pious people in the pews looked on 
with wide-open eyes. 

Down the street like a deer sped the captain. 
After him came his officers. In their rear rushed the 
patriots, some carrying old muskets, some with scythes 
and reaping-hooks. 

It was a hot flight and a hot chase. Luckily foi 
Captain Moore the guard on the schooner was wide- 
awake. He saw the countrymen chasing his captain, 
and at once loaded and fired a gun, whose ball went 
whistling over the heads of the men of Maine. This 
was more than they looked for ; they held back in 
doubt; some of them sought hiding places; before 
they could gain fresh courage a boat put off from the 
schooner and took the captain and his officers on 
board. 

Captain Moore did not know what was wrong, but 
he thought he would frighten the people, at any rate. 
So his cannon thundered and balls came hurtling- over 
the town. Then he drew up his anchor and sailed sev- 
eral miles down the bay, letting the anchor fall again 
near a high bank. Some of the townsmen followed, 
and a man named Foster called from the bank, bidding 
him surrender. But the captain laughed at him, raised 
his anchor once more and ran farther out into the bay. 
26 



A BRITISH SCHOONER CAPTURED 



27 



It looked as if the whole affair was at an end and 
the Margaretta safe. But the men of Machias were 
not yet at the end of their rope. There lay the lumber 
sloops, and where a schooner could go a sloop could 
follow. 

Early Monday morning four young men climbed 
to the deck of one of the sloops and cheered in a way 
that soon brought a crowd to the wharf. One of these 
was a bold, gallant fellow, named Jeremiah O'Brien. 
. "What is in the wind ?" he asked. 

"We are going for the King's ship," said Wheaton, 
one of the men. " We can outsail her, and all we want 
is guns enough and men enough to take her." 

"My boys, we can do it," cried O'Brien, in lusty 
tones, after hearing the plan. 

Everybody ran off for arms, but all they could find 
in the town were twenty guns, with enough powder and 
balls to make three shots for 

, „, . , IseSTRUCTION OT THE, 

each, i heir other weapons fr-tt;:a.te.ek. pet^-eli. 

, . . , - , 1 SY THE 5T-I.AUa?,ENCE. 

were thirteen pitchiorks and 
twelve axes. Jerry O'Brien 
was chosen captain, thirty- 
five of the most athletic men 
were selected, and the sloop 
put off before a fresh breeze 
for the first naval battle of 
the Revolution. 

It is likely that there 
were a few sailors among- 
them, and no doubt their 
captain knew how to handle 
a sloop. But the most of 








i^W^^ 



them were landsmen, chiefly haymakers, for Machias 
lay amid grassy meadows and the making of hay was 
its chief business. And there were some woodsmen, 
who knew well how to swing an axe. They were all 
bold men and true, who cared more for their country 
than for the King. 

When Captain Moore saw the sloop coming with 
Its deck crowded with men he must have wondered 
what all this meant. What ailed these countrymen ? 
Anyhow, he would not fight without knowing what he 
was fighting for, so he raised his anchor, set his sails 
and made for the open sea. But he had hardly started 
when, in going about in the strong wind, the main boom 
swung across so sharply that it struck the backstays and 
broke short off. 

I fancy if any of us had been close by then we 
would have heard ringing cheers from the Yankee crew. 
They felt sure now of their prize, though we cannot 
see why, for the Margaretta had twenty-four cannon, 
four throwing six-pound balls and the rest one-pound 
balls. Muskets and pitchforks did not seem of much 
use against these. It had also more men than the sloop. 

We cannot see why Captain Moore showed his 
heels instead of his fists, for he soon proved that he 
was no coward. But he still seemed to want to get 
away, so he drew up beside a schooner that lay at an- 
chor, robbed it of its boom, lashed it to his own mast 
and once more took to flight. 

But the sloop was now not far behind, and soon 
showed that it was the better sailer of the two. In the 
end it came so close that Captain Moore was forced to 
fight or yield. 

28 



A BRITISH SCHOONER CAPTURED 

One of the swivel guns was fired, and then came a 
whole broadside, sending its balls hurtling over the 
crowded deck of the sloop. One man fell dead, but no 
other harm was done. 

Only a single shot was fired back, but this came 
from a heavy gun and was aimed by an old hunter. It 
struck the man at the helm of the schooner. He fell 
dead, lettino^ the rudder swinor loose. 

The Margaretta, with no hand at her helm, broached 
to, and in a minute more the sloop came crashing against 
her. At once there beo^an a fierce battle between the 
British tars and the haymakers of Maine, who sprang 
wildly and with ringing cheers for the schooner's deck. 

Weapons of all sorts now came into play. Cut- 
lasses, hand-grenades, pistols and boarding pikes were 
used by the schooner's men, muskets, pitchforks and 
axes were deftly handled by the crew of the sloop. 
Men fast fell dead and wounded; the decks grew red 
with blood; both sides fought fiercely; the men of 
Machias striving like tigers to gain a footing on the 
schooner's deck, the British tars meeting and driving 
them back. 

Captain Moore showed that it was not fear that 
made him run away. He now fought bravely at the 
head of his men, cheering them on, and hurling hand- 
grenades at the foe. 

But in a few minutes the end came. A bullet 
struck the gallant captain and he fell dead on his deck. 
When they saw him fall the crew lost heart and drew 
back. The Yankees swarmed over the bulwarks. In 
a minute more the Margaretta was theirs. 







JOHN PAUL JONES, 

The first great Captain of the American 

Navy who won renown in foreign 

waters. 








The battle, though short, had been desperate, for 
twenty men lay killed and wounded, more than a fourth 
of the whole number engaged. 

As Bunker Hill showed British soldiers that the 
Yankees could fight on land, so the capture of the Mar- 
garetta, the first naval victory of the Americans, 
showed that they could fight at sea. The Margaretta 
was very much the stronger, in men, in guns, and in 
her trained officers and skilled crew. Yet she had been 
taken by a party of landsmen, with muskets against 
cannon and pitchforks against pistols. It was a victory 
of which the colonists could well be proud. 

But Captain O'Brien was not yet satisfied. He had 
now a good sloop under his feet, a good crew at his 
back, and the arms and ammunition of his prize. He 
determined to go a-privateering on his own account. 

Taking the Margaretta to the town, he handed 
over his prisoners and put the cannon and swivels of 
the schooner on his swifter sloop, together with the 
muskets, pistols, powder and shot which he found on 
board. Then away he went, with a bold and daring 
crew, in search for prizes and glory. 

He soon found both. When the news of what he 
had done reached Halifax the British there sent out 
two schooners with orders to capture the insolent Yan- 
kee and bring him to port and to prison. But Captain 
O'Brien showed that he knew how to handle a sloop as 
well as a pitchfork. He met the schooners sent to cap- 
ture him and by skillful sailing managed to separate 
them. Then he made a bold dash on each of them and 
and in a little time captured them both. 
30 



w 



CHAPTER III. 

Benedict Arnold, the Soldier-Sailor, 

A NOVEL FIGHT ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN. 

AS it not a dreadful pity that Benedict Arnold 
should disgrace himself for ever by becoming a 
traitor to his country ? To think of his making 
himself the most despised of all Americans, when, if he 
had been true to his flag, he might have been ranked 
among our greatest heroes. For Arnold was one of 
the best and bravest fighters in Washington's army. 
And he could fisfht as hard and well on water as on 
land, as you will learn when you read of what he did 
on Lake Champlain. 

I am sure all my readers must know where this 
lake is, and how it stretches down in a long line from 
Canada far into New York State. Below Lake Cham- 
plain extends Lake George, and not very far from that 
is the Hudson River, which flows down to the city of 
New York. 

If the British could only have held that line of 
water they would have cut the colonies in two, and in 
that way they might soon have brought the war to an 
end. This was what they tried to do in the fall of 
1776 ; but they did not count on Arnold and his men. 

Let us tell what brought this about. General Ar- 
nold and General Montgomery had marched through 
the wilderness to Quebec in the winter before. But 
there they met with bitter weather, and deadly disease, 

31 












and death from cold and cannon. The brave Mont- 
gomery was killed, the daring Arnold fought in vain, 
and in the end the invading army was forced to march 
back — all that was left of it. 

As the Americans went back Sir Guy Carleton, the 
British commander, followed, and made his camp at St. 
John's, at the north end of Lake Champlain. The 
nearest American post was at Crown Point, far down, 
towards the foot of the lake. Not far south of this, 
near the head of Lake George, was the famous old 
French fort Ticonderoga, which Arnold and Ethan' 
Allen had captured from the British the year before. 
I tell you all this that you may know how the land lay. 
A glance at a good map will help. 

I think it very likely that some of you may have 
visited those beautiful lakes, and seen the towns and 
villages on their shores, the handsome dwellings on 
their islands, and the broad roads along their banks ; 
everything gay and smiling. 

If you had been there in 1776 you would have 
seen a very different sight. Look right or left, east or 
west, nothing but a wilderness of trees would have met 
your eyes. As for roads, I fancy an Indian trail would 
have been the best to be found. And no man that 
wished to keep his scalp on his head would have 
thought of living on island or shore. 

The only good road southward was the liquid one 
made by nature, and this road Carleton decided to take. 
He would build a strong fleet and transport his army 
down the lake, while the Indians that came with him 
could paddle downward in their canoes. 
32 



THE SOLDIER-SAILOR 



33 



At this time there was not a vessel on the lakes, 
but Carleton workefd hard and soon had such a fleet as 
these waters had never seen. Three of his ships were 
built in England in such a way that they could be taken 
to pieces, carried through the wilderness to St. John's, 
and there put together again. The smaller vessels were 
built on the spot, soldiers, sailors, and farmers all work- 
ing on them. 

It was well on in October before he got done. 
Then he had a fleet of twenty-five vessels in all, twenty 
of them being gunboats, but some of them quite large. 
Their crews numbered a thousand men and they carried 
eighty-nine cannon. 

You may well suppose that the Americans knew 
what was going on, and that they did not fold their 
hands and wait. That is not, and never was, the 
American way. If the British could build so could the 
Yankees, and Benedict Arnold was ordered to build a 
fleet to fight the British fleet when it was done. 

Arnold had been at sea in his time and knew some- 
thing of what he was about. His men were farmers 
who had taken up arms for their country, but he got a 
few shipbuilders from the coast and went to work like 
a Trojan. 

When October came he had fifteen vessels afloat. 
There were two schooners and one sloop, the others 
being called galleys and gondolas — no better than large 
row-boats, with three to six guns each. 

Arnold had about as many guns as Carleton, but 
they were smaller, and he had not nearly so many men 
to handle them. And his men were farmers instead of 



"^^^^^^ 




r/ 

sailors, and knew no more about a cannon than about 
a king's crown. But the British ships were manned by 
picked seamen from the warships in the St. Lawrence 
River, and had trained naval officers. 

I fear if any of us had been in Arnold's place we 
would have wanted to go home. It looked like folly 
for him and his men to fight the British fleet with its 
skilled officers and sailors and its heavy guns. It was 
like meeting a raft of logs with one of chips. 

But Arnold was not a man who stopped to count 
the cost when fighting was to be had. As soon as he 
was ready he set sail boldly up the lake, and on the 
morning of October 1 1, 1776, he drew up his little fleet 
across a narrow channel between Valcour Island and 
the west shore of the lake. He knew the British would 
soon be down. 

It was a fine, clear, cool morning, with a strong 
wind from the north, just the kind of day Carleton had 
been waiting for. So, soon after sunrise, his fleet came 
sweeping on past Valcour Island. But all the sailors 
saw was a thicket of green trees, and they had got well 
south of the island before they looked back and saw the 
American fleet. 

Here was an ugly situation. It would never do to 
leave the Americans in their rear. Down went the 
helms, round swept the sails, out came the oars, and 
soon the British fleet was making a struggle against the 
wind which had seemed so fair a few minutes before. 
So strong was the breeze that ten o'clock had passed 
before they reached the channel in which the Ameri- 
cans lay. 

34 



THE SOLDIER-SAILOR 



35 



Arnold came eagerly to meet them, with the Royal 
Savage, his largest vessel, and three of his gondolas. 
One of these, the Coiig7'ess, he had made his flag-ship. 
Soon the waters of that quiet bay rang with the roar of 
cannon and the shouts of fighting men, and Arnold, 
having drawn the fire of the whole British fleet, was 
obliged to hurry back. 

In doing so he met with a serious loss. The Royal 
Savage, pierced by a dozen balls, ran ashore on the 
island. As she could not be got off, the crew set her 
on fire and escaped to the woods. They had better 
have leaped into the lake, for the woods were full of 
Indians whom Carleton had sent ashore, and to be a 
prisoner to Indians in those days was a terrible fate. 

When he got back to his fleet, Arnold formed his 
line to meet the British, who came steadily on until 
within musket shot. Then a furious battle began, broad- 
side meeting broadside, grape-shot and round-shot hurt- 
ling through the air, the thick smoke of the conflict 
drifting into the woodland, while from the forest came 
back flame and bullets as the Indians fought for their 
British friends. 

Arnold, on the deck of the Congress, led in the 
thickest of the fight, handling his fleet as if he had been 
an admiral born, cheering the men at the guns, aiming 
and firing a gun at intervals himself, and not yielding a 
foot to the foe. Now and then a gun was fired at the 
Indians, forcing them to skip nimbly behind the trees. 

For six long hours the battle kept up at close 
quarters. This is what Arnold says about it in few 
words : " At half-past twelve the engagement became 
general and very warm. Some of the enemy's ships 



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and all their gondolas beat and rowed up within musket 
shot of us. They continued a very hot fire with round 
and grape-shot until five o'clock, when they thought 
proper to retire to about six or seven hundred yards 
distance, and continued the fire till dark." 

Hot as their fire was, they must have found that of 
the Americans hotter, for they went back out of range 
of the Yankee guns, but kept within range of their 
own. 

Arnold's vessels were in a bad plight. Several of 
them were as full of holes as a pepper bottle, and one 
sank soon after the fight ended. But two of the British 
gunboats had been sunk and one blown up. The worst 
for the Americans was that nearly all their powder was 
gone. They could not fight an hour more. 

Perilous as was the situation. Admiral Arnold was 
equal to it. The night came on dark and stormy, with 
a hard gale from the north. This was just what he 
wanted. Up came the anchors and away went the 
boats, one after the other in a long line, each showing a 
light to the vessel that followed, but hiding it from 
British eyes. In this way they slipped unseen through 
the British line, Arnold in the Congress taking the post 
of danger in the rear. 

When morning dawned and the British lookouts 
gazed for the American fleet, it was nowhere to be seen. 
It had vanished in the night and now was ten miles down 
the lake, where it was drawn up near shore for repairs. 

Two of the gondolas proved to be past mending, 
and were sunk. The others were patched up to keep 
them afloat without too much pumping, and the fleet 
36 



THE SOLDIER-SAILOR 



Zl 



started on, hoping to gain the shelter of Crown Point 
or Ticonderoga. 

The wind had changed to the south and they had 
to take to their oars. This kept them back, but it 
gave the British quite as much trouble. That day 
passed away and the next day, Friday, dawned before 
the pursuers came in sight. And now a chase began, 
with oar and sail, and kept up till noon, when Crown 
Point was still some leagues away. By this time the 
British cannon balls began to reach the American boats 
and the tired rowers were forced to turn to their guns 
and fight. 

Never did sea-hero fight more gallantly than did 
the soldier Arnold that day. The first British broad- 
side ruined the gondola Washington and forced it to 
surrender. But Arnold in the little Congress drew up 
beside the Inflexible, a 300-ton ship with eighteen 12- 
pounder cannon and fought 
the ship with his little gun- 
boat as if they had been of 
equal strength. Inspired by 
his example the other boats 
fought as bravely. 

Not until a third of his 
men were dead and his boat 
a mere wreck did he give up 
the fight. But not to sur- 
render — no such thought 
came into his mind. By his 
order the galleys were run 
ashore in a creek nearby 
and there set on fire. With 







the three guns of the shattered Congress he covered 
their retreat until their crews were safe on shore. 

Then, reckless of the British shot, he ran the 
Congress ashore also and stood guard at her stern 
while the crew set her on fire. The men by his orders 
sought the shore, but Arnold stood by his flag to the 
last, not leaving until the flames had such hold that he 
was sure no Briton's hand could strike his flag. It 
would float until it went up in flames. 

Then he sprang into the water, waded ashore, and 
joined his men, who greeted him with cheers. 

The savages were swarming in the woods, eager 
for scalps, but Arnold was not troubled by fear of 
them. Forming his men into order, he marched them 
through the woods, and before night reached safety at 
Crown Point. 

Thus ended one of the noblest fights the inland 
waters of America ever saw. The British were victors, 
though at a heavy cost. Arnold had fought until his 
fleet was annihilated ; and not in vain. Carleton sailed 
back to St. John's and made his way to Canada. He 
had seen enough of Yankee pluck. Thus Arnold, 
though defeated, gained by his valor the fruit of 
victory, for the British gave up their plan of holding 
the lake. 



38 



CHAPTER IV. 







Captain Paul Jones, 

THE GREATEST OF AMERICA'S NAVAL HEROES. 

NCE upon a time there lived in Scotland a poor 
gardener named John Paul, who had a little son 
to whom he gave the same name. The rich 
man's garden that the father took care of was close by 
the sea, and little John Paul got to love blue water so 
much that he spent most of his time near it, and longed 
to be a sailor. 

He lived in his father's cottage near the sea until 
he was twelve years old. Then he was put to work in 
a big town, on the other side of the Solway Firth. 
This town was called Whitehaven. It was a very busy 
place, and ships and sailors were there in such numbers 
that the little fellow, who had been put in a store, 
greatly liked to go down to the docks and talk with the 
seamen, who had been in so many different lands and 
seas, and who could tell him all about the wonderful 
and curious places they had seen, and about their 
adventures on the great oceans they had sailed over. 

In the end the boy made up his mind to go to sea. 
He studied all about ships and how to sail them. He 
read all the books he could get, and often, when other 
boys were asleep or in mischief, he was learning from 
the books he read many things that helped him when 
he grew older. 

39 





At last he had his wish. When he was only thir- 
teen years old, he was put as a sailor boy on a ship 
called the Friendship. 

The vessel was bound to Virginia, in America, for 
a cargo of tobacco, and the young sailor greatly en- 
joyed the voyage, and was especially delighted with the 
new country across the sea. He wished he could live 
in America, and hoped some day to go there again. 

When this first voyage was over, he returned to 
Whitehaven^ and went back to the store. But soon 
after the merchant who owned the store failed in busi- 
ness, and the boy was out of a place and had to look 
out for himself. This time he became a real seaman. 
For many years he served as a common sailor. He 
proved such a good one that before he was twenty 
years old he was a captain. This is how he became 
one. While the ship in which he was sailing was in the 
middle of the Atlantic Ocean, a terrible fever broke 
out. The captain died. The mate, who comes next 
to the captain, died ; all of the sailors were sick, and 
some of them died. There was no one who knew 
about sailing such a big vessel, except young John 
Paul. So he took command, and sailed the ship into 
port without an accident, and the owners were so glad 
that they made the young sailor captain of the ship 
which he had saved for them. 

John Paul was not the only one of his family who 
loved America. He had a brother who had crossed 
the ocean and was living in Virginia, on the banks of 
the Rappahannock River. This was the same river 
beside which George Washington lived when a boy. 
40 



i 

i 



I 



CAPTAIN PAUL JONES 



41 



The young captain visited his brother several times 
while he was sailing on his voyages and he liked the 
country so much that, when his brother died, he gave 
up being a sailor for a while, and went to live on his 
brother's farm. 

When he became a farmer, he changed his name 
to Jones. Why he did so nobody knows. But he ever 
after bore the name of John Paul Jones. He made 
this one of the best known names in the history of the 
seas. 

I doubt if he was a very good farmer. He was 
too much of a sailor for that. So when the American 
Revolution began, he was eager to fight the British on 
the seas. There was no nation at that time so power- 
ful on the sea as England. The King had a splendid 
lot of ships of war — almost a thousand. The United 
States had none. But soon the Americans got together 
five little ships, and sent them out as the beginning of 
the American navy, to fight the ships of England. 

John Paul Jones was made first lieutenant of a 
ship called the Alfred. He had the good fortune to 
hoist, for the first time on any ship, the earliest Ameri- 
can flag. This was a great yellow silk flag which had on 
it the picture of a pine tree, with a rattlesnake coiled 
around it, and underneath were the words : " Don't 
tread on me ! " 

Then the grand union flag of the colonies was set. 
This had thirteen red and white stripes, like our present 
flag, but, instead of the stars, in the corner it had the 
British "union jack". Thus there was a link on the 
flag between the colonies and England. They had not 
quite cut apart. 




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Jones had first been offered the command of the 
Providence, a brig that bore twelve guns and had a crew 
of one hundred men. But he showed the kind of man 
he was by saying that he did not know enough to be a 
captain, and was hardly fit to be a first lieutenant. 
That was how he came to be made first lieutenant of 
the Alfred. Congress took him at his own price. 

But Commodore Hopkins, who commanded the 
fleet, was wise enough to see that Jones knew more 
about his work than most of the captains in the service. 
So he ordered him to take command of the Providence, 
the snug little brig he had first been offered. 

The new captain was put to carrying troops and 
guarding merchant vessels along the shore, and he did 
this with wonderful skill. There were British men-of- 
war nearly everywhere, but Jones managed to keep 
clear of them. He darted up and down Long Island 
Sound, carrying soldiers and guns and food to General 
Washington. So well did he do his work that Congress 
made him a captain. This was on August 8, 1776, a 
month and more after the " Declaration of Independ- 
ence." He had a free country now to fight for, instead 
of rebel colonies. 

The Providence was a little vessel, but it was a fast 
sailer and was wonderfully quick to answer the helm. 
That is, it turned very quickly when the rudder was 
moved. And it had a captain who knew how to sail a 
ship. All this got the little brig out of more than one 
tight place. 

I must tell you about one of these escapes, in 
which Captain Jones showed himself a very cute 
42 



CAPTAIN PAUL JONES 



43 



sea-fox. He came across a fleet of vessels which he 
thought were merchant ships, and had a fancy he 
might capture the largest. But when he got close up 
he found that this was a big British frigate, the Solebay. 

Away went the Providence at full speed, and hot 
foot after her came the Solebay. For four hours the 
chase was kept up, the frigate steadily gaining. At last 
she was only a hundred yards away. Now was the time 
to surrender. Nearly any one but Paul Jones would 
have done so. A broadside from the great frigate 
would have torn his little brig to pieces. But he was 
one of the "never surrender" kind. 

What else could he do, you ask. Well, I will tell 
you what he did. He quietly made ready to set all his 
extra sails, and put a man with a lighted match at each 
cannon, and had another ready to hoist the union flag. 

Then, with a quick turn of the helm, the little brig 
swung round like a top across the frigate's bows. As 
she did so all the guns on that side sent their iron hail 
sweeping across the deck of the Solebay. In a minute 
more the studding sails were set on both sides, like 
broad white wings, and away went the Providence as 
swift as a racer, straight before the wind and with the 
American flag proudly flying. 

The officers and men of the frigate were so upset 
by the sudden dash and attack that they did not know 
what to do. Before they came to their senses the brig 
was out of reach of their shot. Off like a bird she 
went, now quite outsailing her pursuer. The Solebay 
fired more than a hundred iron balls after her, but they 
only scared the fishes. 




In the fighting top of a modern 
Man-of- War. 







It was not long before Captain Jones found an- 
other big British ship on his track. He was now off 
the coast of Nova Scotia, and as there was nothing else 
to do he let his men have a day's sport in fishing for 
codfish. Fish are plenty in those waters, and they were 
pulling them up in a lively fashion when a strange sail 
rose in sight. 

When it came well up Captain Jones saw it was a 
British frigate, and judged it time to pull in his fishing 
lines and set sail on his little craft. Away like a deer 
went the brig and after her like a hound came the ship. 
But it soon proved that the deer was faster than the 
hound, and so Captain Jones began to play with the big 
frigate. He took in some of his sails and kept just out 
of reach. 

The Milford, which was the name of the British 
ship, kept firing at the Providence, but all her shot 
plunged into the waves. It was like the hound barking 
at the deer. And every time the T^/z'^r^ sent a broad- 
side Paul J(5nes replied with a musket. After he had 
all the fun he wanted out of the lumbering frigate, he 
spread all sail again and soon left her out of sight. 

We cannot tell the whole story of the cruise of the 
Providence. In less than two months it captured sixteen 
vessels and burned some others. Soon after that Jones 
was made captain of the Alfred, the ship on which he 
had raised the first flag. With this he took a splendid 
prize, the brig Mellish, on which were ten thousand 
uniforms for the British soldiers. Many a ragged sol- 
dier in Washington's army thanked him that winter for. 
a fine suit of warm clothing. 

44 



CAPTAIN PAUL JONES 



45 



Now let us tell one more fine thing that Captain 
Jones did in American waters, before he crossed the 
ocean to the British seas. Sailing along the coast of 
Canada he came upon a fleet of coal vessels, with a 
British frigate to take care of them. But it was foggy 
and the coalers were scattered, and Jones picked up 
three of them while the frigate went on with her eyes 
shut and not knowing that anything was wrong. 

Two days afterward he came upon a British priva- 
teer, which was on the hunt for American vessels. But 
when the Alfred came up it hardly fired a shot before 
down came its flag. 

Captain Jones now thought it time to get home. 
His ship was crowded with prisoners, he was short of 
food and water, and he had four prizes to look after, 
which were manned with some of his crew. 

But he was not to eet home without another ad- 
venture, for, late one afternoon, there came in sight the 
frigate Milford, the one which he had saluted with 
musket balls. He could not play with her now, for he 
had his prizes to look after, and while he could outsail 
her, the prizes could not. 

So he told the captains of the prizes to keep on as 
they were, no matter what signals he made. Night 
soon came, and the Alfred sailed on, with two lanterns 
swinging in her tops. Soon she changed her course 
and the Milford followed. No doubt her captain 
thou^^ht that the Yankee had lost his wits, to sail on with 
lanterns blazing and make it easy to keep in his track. 

But when morning dawned the British captain 
found he had been tricked. The Alfred was in sight, 













the prizes were gone except the privateer, whose 
captain had not obeyed orders. The result was 
the privateer was recaptured. But the Alfred 
kept ahead. That afternoon a squall of snow 
pon the sea, and the Yankee craft, "amid clouds 

darkness and foaming surges, made her escape." 
a few days more the Alfred sailed into Boston. 
There his ship was given another captain, and for six 
months he had nothing to do. Congress was full of 
politicians who were looking out for their friends, and 
the best seaman in the American navy was left sitting 
at home biting his thumb nails and whistling for a ship. 

I have not told you here the whole story of our great- 
est naval hero. I have not told you even the best part 
of his story, that part which has made him famous in 
all history, and put him on a level with the most cele- 
brated sea fighters of all time. 

The exploits of Paul Jones cover two seas, those 
of America and those of England, and in both he 
proved himself a brilliant sailor and a daring fighter. 
I think you will say this from what you have already 
read. His deeds of skill and bravery on our own coast 
were wonderful, and if they had stood alone would have 
given him great fame. But it was in the waters and on 
the shores of England that he showed the whole world 
what a man he was ; and now, when men talk of the 
great heroes of the sea, the name of John Paul Jones 
always stands first. This is the story we have next to 
tell, how Captain Jones crossed the ocean and bearded 
the British lion in his den. 



CHAPTER V. 

How Paul Jones Won Renown. 



/ 



THE FIRST GREAT FIGHT OF THE AMERICAN NAVY. 



-» Jrjou have been told how Captain Paul Jones lost his 
I ship. He was given another in June, 1777. This 
-J was the Ranger^ a frigate carrying twenty-six 
guns, but it was such a slow old tub that our captain 
was not well pleased with his new craft. He did not 
want to run away from the British, but he wanted a 
ship that was fit to chase an enemy. 

We have one thing very interesting to tell. On 
the very day that Jones got his new ship Congress 
adopted a new flag, the American standard with its 
thirteen stars and thirteen stripes. As soon as he 
heard of the new flag. Captain Jones had one made in 
all haste, and with his own hands he ran it up to the 
mast-head of the Ranger. So she was the first ship 
that ever carried the " Stars and Stripes." Is it not 
interesting that the man who first raised the pine-tree 
flag of the colonies was the first to fling out to the 
breeze the star-spangled flag of the American Union ? 

Captain Jones was ordered to sail for France, but 
it took so long to get the Rafiger ready for sea that it 
was winter before he reached there. Benjamin Frank- 
lin and other Americans were there in France and were 
having a fine new frigate built for Paul Jones. But 
when England heard of it such a protest was made that 
the French government stopped the work on the ship, 

47 



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British Captain surrendering his 
sword to Pauljones. 







and our brave captain had to go to sea again in the 
slow-footed Rajiger. 

He had one satisfaction. He sailed through the 
French fleet at Quileron Bay and saluted the French 
flag. The French admiral could not well help return- 
ing his salute. That was the first time the Stars and 
Stripes were saluted by a foreign power. 

What Captain Jones proposed to do was the 
boldest thing any American captain could do. Eng- 
and was invading America. He proposed to invades 
England. That is, he would cruise along the British 
coast, burning ships and towns, and thus do there what 
the British had done along the American coast. He 
wanted to let them see how they liked it themselves. 

It was a daring plan. The British Channel was 
full of war-vessels. If they got on the track of his slow 
ship he could not run away. He would never think of 
running from one ship, but there might be a fleet. But 
Paul Jones was the last man in the world to think of 
danger, so he put boldly out to sea, and took his 
chances. 

It was not long before he had all England in a 
stew. News came that this daring American war-ship 
was taking prize after prize, burning some and sending ' 
their crews ashore. He would hide along the English 
coast from the men-of-war that went out in search, and 
then suddenly dart out and seize some merchant ship. 

The English called Captain Jones a pirate, and all 

sorts of hard names. But they were very much afraid 

of him and his stout ship. And this voyage of his, along 

the shores of England, taught them to respect and fear 

48 



HOW PAUL JONES WON RENOWN 



49 



the American sailors more than they had ever done 
before. 

After he had captured many British vessels almost 
in sight of their homes, he boldly sailed to the north and 
into the very port of Whitehaven, where he had 
" tended store," as a boy, and from which he had first 
gone to sea. Heknewallabout the place. He knew how 
many vessels were there, and what a splendid victory 
he could win for the American navy, if he could sail 
into Whitehaven harbor and capture or destroy the two 
hundred vessels that were anchored within sight of the 
town he remembered so well. 

With two row-boats and thirty men he landed at 
Whitehaven, locked up the soldiers in the forts, fixed 
the cannon so that they could not be fired, set fire to 
one of the vessels that were in the harbor, and so 
frightened all the people that, though the gardener's 
son stood alone on the wharf, waiting for a boat to 
take him ofT, not a man dared to lay a hand on him. 
With a single pistol he kept back a thousand men. 

Then he sailed across the bay to the house of the 
great lord for whom his father had worked as a gard- 
ener. He meant to run away with this nobleman, and 
keep him prisoner until the British promised to treat 
better the Americans whom they had taken prisoners. 
But the lord whom he went for was " not at home," so 
all that Captain Jones' men could do was to carry off 
from the big house the silver ware of the earl. Captain 
Jones did not like this ; so he got the things back and 
returned them to Earl Selkirk, with a letter asking him 
to excuse his men. 



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-^^^^ 





r 

Not long afterward one of the British men-of-war 
which were in the hunt for Captain Jones found him. 
This was the Drake, a larger ship than the Raiiger and 
carrying more men. But that did not trouble Paul 
Jones, and soon there was a terrible fight. The sails - 
of the Drake were cut to pieces, her decks were red 
with blood, and then her captain fell dead. In an hour 
after the fight began, just as the sun was going down 
behind the Irish hills, there came a cry for quarter from 
the Drake and the battle was at an end. Off went 
Captain Jones with his ship and his prize for the friendly 
shores of France, where he was received with great 
praise. 

Soon after this the French decided to help the 
Americans in their war for independence. After some 
time Captain Jones was put in command of five ships, 
and back he sailed to England to fight the British ships 
again. 

The vessel in which he sailed was the biggest of 
the five ships. It had forty guns and a crew of three 
hundred sailors. Captain Jones thought so much of 
the great Dr. Benjamin Franklin, who had written a 
book of good advice, under the name of " Poor Rich- 
ard," that he named his big ship for Dr. Franklin. He 
called it the Bon Hoynme Richard, which is French for 
"STOod man Richard." But the Bon Hom7ne Richard 
was not a good boat, if it was a big one. It was old 
and rotten and cranky, and not fit for a war-ship, but 
its new commander made the best he could of it. 

The little fleet sailed up and down the English 

coasts, capturing a few prizes, and greatly frightening 

50 



HO W PA UL JONES WON RENO WN 



51 



the people by saying that they had come to burn some 
of the big Enghsh sea towns. Then, just as they were 
about saiHng back to France, they came — near an Eng- 
lish Cape, called Flamborough Head — upon an English 
fleet of forty merchant vessels and two war ships. 

One of the war ships was a great English frigate, 
called the Serapis, finer and stronger every way than 
the Bon Homme Richard. But Captain Jones would 
not run away. 

"What ship is that?" called out the Englishman. 
"Come a little nearer, and we'll tell you," answered 
plucky Captain Jones. 

The British ships did come a little nearer. The 
forty merchant vessels sailed as fast as they could to 
the nearest harbor, and then the war ships had a terri- 
ble battle. 

At seven o'clock in the evening the British frigate 
and the Bon Ho77ime Richard began to fight. They 
banged and hammered away for hours, and then, when 
the British captain thought he must have beaten the 
Americans, and it was so dark and smoky that they 
could only see each other by the fire flashes, he called 
out to the American captain : 'Are you beaten? Have 
you hauled down your flag?" 

And back came the answer of Captain John Paul 
Jones: "I haven't begun to fight yet!" 

So they went at it again. The two ships were now 
lashed together, and they tore each other like savage 
dogs in a fight. 

The rotten old Richard suffered terribly. Two of 
her great guns had burst at the first fire, and she was 
shot through and through by the Serapis until most of 



o 








6 




her timbers above the water-Hne were shot away. The 
British rushed on board with pistols and cutlasses, but 
the Americans drove them back. But the Richard was 
fire : water was pouring in through a dozen shot 



on 



holes; it looked as if she must surrender, brave as were 
her captain and crew. 

There were nearly two hundred prisoners on board 
the old ship who had been taken from captured vessels, 
and so pitiful were their cries that one of the officers 
set them free, thinking that the ship was going to sink 
and that they ought to have a chance for their lives. 
These men came running up on deck, adding greatly 
to the trouble of Captain Jones, for he had now a crowd 
of enemies on his own ship. But the prisoners were so 
scared that they did not know what to do. They saw 
the ship burning around them and heard the water 
pouring into the hold, and thought they would be car- 
ried to the bottom. So to keep them from mischief 
they were set at work, some of them at the pumps, 
others at putting out the fire. And to keep the ship 
from blowing up, if the fire should reach the magazine, 
Captain Jones set men at bringing up the kegs of 
powder and throwing them into the sea. Never was 
there a ship in so desperate a strait, and there was 
hardly a man on board except Captain Jones who did 
not want to surrender. 

But the British were not having it all their own 
way. The American tars had climbed the masts and 
were firing down with muskets and flinging down hand 
grenades until all the British had to run from the upper 
deck. A hand grenade is a small, hollow iron ball filled 
52 



HO W PA UL JONES WON RENO WN 



53 



with powder, which explodes when thrown down and 
sends the bits of iron flying all around, like so many 
bullets. 

One sailor took a bucketful of these and crept far 
out on the yard-arm of the ship, and began to fling 
them down on the gun-deck of the Serapis, where they 
did much damage. At last one of them went through 
the open hatchway to the main deck, where a crowd of 
men were busy working the great guns, and cartridges 
lay all about and loose powder was scattered on the 
floor. 

The grenade set fire to this powder, and in a sec- 
ond there was a terrible explosion. A great sheet of 
flame burst up through the hatchway and frightful cries 
came from below. In that dreadful moment more than 
twenty men were killed and many more were wounded. 
All the guns on that deck had to be abandoned. There 
were no men left to work them. 

Where was Captain Jones 
all the time, and what was he 
doing ? You may be sure he 
was busy. He had taken a 
gun and loaded it with double 
headed shot, and kept firing at 
the mainmast of the Serapis. 
Every shot cut a piece out of 
the mast, and after a while it 
came tumbling upon the deck, 
with all its spars and rigging. 
The tarred ropes quickly 
caught fire and the ship was 
in flames. 







At this moment up came the Alliance, one of Cap- 
tain Jones's fleet. He now thought that the battle was 
at an end, but to his horror the Alliance, instead of fir- 
ing at the British ship, began to pour its broadsides 
into his own. He called to them for God's sake to 
quit firing, but they kept on, killing some of his best 
men, and making several holes under water, through 
which new floods poured into the ship. The Alliance 
had a French captain who hated Paul Jones and wanted 
to sink his ship. 

Both ships were now in flames, and water rushed 
into the Richard faster than the pumps could keep it 
out. Some of the officers begged Captain Jones to 
pull down his flag and surrender, but he would not give 
up. He thought there was always a chance while he 
had a deck under his feet. 

Soon the cowardly French traitor quit firing and 
sailed off, and Paul Jones began his old work again, firing 
at the Serapis as if the battle had just begun. This was 
more than the British captain could bear. His ship was a 
mere wreck and was blazing around him, so he ran on 
deck and pulled down his flag with his own hands. The 
terrible battle was at an end. The British ship had 
given up the fight. 

Lieutenant Dale sprang on board the Serapis, went 
up to Captain Pearson, the British commander, and 
asked him if he surrendered. The Englishman replied 
that he had, and then he and his chief ofiicer went 
aboard the battered Richard, which was sinking even 
in its hour of victory. 

But Captain Jones stood on the deck of his sink- 
ing vessel, proud and triumphant. He had shown what 

54 



HO W PA UL JONES WON RENO WN 



55 



an American captain and American sailors could do, 
even when everything was against them. The English 
captain gave up his sword to the American, which is 
the way all sailors and soldiers do when they surrender 
their ships or their armies. 

The fight had been a brave one, and the English 
King knew that his captain had made a bold and des- 
perate resistance, even if he had been whipped. So he 
rewarded Captain Pearson, when he at last returned to 
England, by making him a Knight, thus giving him 
the title of "Sir". When Captain Jones heard of this 
he laughed, and said : '* Well, if I can meet Captain 
Pearson again in a sea fight, I'll make him a lord." 

The poor Bon Homme Richard was such an utter 
wreck that she soon sunk beneath the waves. But, 
even as she went down, the stars and stripes floated 
proudly from the masthead, in token of victory. 

Captain Jones, after the surrender, put all his men 
aboard the captured Serapis, and then off he sailed to 
the nearest friendly port, with his great prize and all 
his prisoners. This victory made him the greatest 
sailor in the whole American war, and the most famous 
of all American seaman. 

Captain Jones took his prize into the Dutch port 
of Texel, closely followed by a British squadron. The 
country of Holland was not friendly to the Americans, 
and though they let him come in, he was told that he 
could not stay there. So he sailed again ; in a howl- 
ing gale, straight through the British squadron, with 
the American flag flying at his peak. Down through 
the narrow Straits of Dover he passed, coming so near 
the English shore that he could count the warships at 





N/ 



anchor In the Downs. That was his way of showing 
how little he feared them. The English were so angry 
at Holland because it would not give up the Americans 
and their prizes that they declared war against that 
country. 

When Captain Jones reached Paris he was received 
with the greatest honor, and greeted as one of the 
ablest and bravest of sea-fighters. 

Everybody wished to see such a hero. He went 
to the King's court, and the King and Queen and 
French lords and ladies made much of him and gave 
him receptions, and said so many fine things about 
him that, if he had been at all vain, it might have 
" turned his head," as people say. But John Paul 
Jones was not vain. 

He was a brave sailor, and he was in France to 
get help and not compliments. He wished a new ship 
to take the place of the old Richard, which had gone 
to the bottom after its great victory. 

So, though the King of France honored him and 
receive him splendidly and made him presents, he kept 
on working to get another ship. At last he was made 
captain of a new ship, called the Ariel, and sailed from 
France. He had a fierce battle with an English ship 
called the T^numph, and defeated her. But she escaped 
before surrendering, and Captain Jones sailed across 
the sea to America. 

He was received at home with g-reat honor and 
applause. Congress gave him a vote of thanks " for the 
zeal, prudence and intrepidity with which he had sup- 
ported the honor of the American flag " — that is what 
the vote said. 
56 



HO W PA UL /ONES WON RENO WN 



57 



People everywhere crowded to see him, and called 
him hero and conqueror. Lafayette, the brave young 
Frenchman who came over to fight for America, called 
him "my dear Paul Jones," and Washington and the 
other leaders in America said, " Well done, Captain 
Jones !" 

The King of France sent him a splendid reward of 
merit called the " Cross of Honor," and Congress set 
about building a fine ship for him to command. But 
before it was finished, the war was over, and he was sent 
back to France on some important business for the 
United States. 

Here he was received with new honor, for the 
French knew how to meet and treat a brave man, and 
above all they loved a man who had humbled the Eng- 
lish, their ancient foes. Captain Jones had sailed from 
a French port and in a French ship, and they looked 
on him almost as one of their own. But all this did 
not make him proud or boastful, for he was not that 
kind of man. 

In later years Paul Jones served in Russia in the 
wars with the Turks. But the British officers who were 
in the Russian service refused to fight under him, say- 
ing that he was a rebel, a pirate and a traitor. This 
was because he had fought for America after being born 
in Scotland. So, after some hard fighting, he left 
Russia and went back to France, where he died in 1 792. 

In all the history of sea fighting we hear of no braver 
man, and the United States, so long as it is a nation, 
will be proud of and honor the memory of the gallant 
sailor, John Paul Jones. 




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CHAPTER VI. 
Captain Bushnell Scares the British. 



THE PIONEER TORPEDO BOAT AND THE BATTLE OF THE KEQS. 

ANY of US all our lives have seen vessels of every 
size and shape darting to and fro over the water, 
some with sails spread to the wind, others with 



M 



puffing pipes and whirling wheels. 

And that is not all. Men have tried to go under 
water as well as on top. Some of you may have read 
Jules Verne's famous story, '* Twenty Thousand 
Leagues under the Seas." That, of course, is all fiction ; 
but now-a-days there are vessels which can go miles 
under the water without once coming to the top. 

We call these submarine boats and look upon them 
as something very new. You may be surprised to learn 
that there was a submarine boat as long ago as the war 
of the Revolution. It was not a very good one, and 
did not do the work it was built for, but it was the first 
of its kind, and that is something worth while. 

Those of you who have studied history will know 
that after the British were driven out of Boston they 
came to New York with a large army, and took posses- 
sion of that city. Washington and his men could not 
keep them out, and had to leave. There the British 
lay, with their army in the city and their fleet in the 
bay and river, and there they stayed for years. 

There was an American who did not like to see 
British vessels floating in American waters. He knew 
58 



CAPTIAN BUSHNELL SCARES THE BRITISH 59 

he could not drive them away, but he thought he might 
give them some trouble. This was a Connecticut man 
named David Bushnell, a chap as smart as a steeltrap 
and one of the first American inventors. 

What Bushnell did was to invent a boat that would 
move under water and might be made to blow up an 
enemy's ship. As it was the first of this kind ever 
made, I am sure you will want to know what it was like 
and how it was worked. 

He called it The American Turtle, for it looked 
much like a great swimming turtle, big enough to hold (3^\ 
a man and also to carry a torpedo loaded with 150 
pounds of gunpowder. This was to be fastened to the 
wooden bottom of a ship and then fired off. It was 
expected to blow a great hole in the bottom and sink 
the vessel. 

Of course, the boat was air-tight and water-tight, but 
it had a supply of fresh air that would last half an hour 
for one man. There was an oar for rowing and a rud- 
der for steering. A valve in the bottom let in the water 
when the one-man crew wanted to sink his turtle-like 
boat, and there were two pumps to force the water out 
again when he wanted to rise. 

There were windows in the top shell of the turtle, 
and air pipes to let out the foul air and take in fresh 
air, and small doors that could be opened when at the 
surface, and heavy lead ballast to keep the turtle level. 
In fact, the affair was very ingenious and complete. 

A very important part of it was the torpedo, with 
its 150 pounds of powder. This was carried outside, 
above the rudder. It was so made that when the boat 





JOSHUA BARNEY, 

Who commanded the " Hyder AH " 

in the last naval battle of the 

Revolution. 




HI III 




i 



came under a vessel the man inside could fasten it with 
a screw to the vessel's bottom, and row away and leave 
it there. Inside it was a clock, which could be set to 
run a certain time and then loosen a sort of eun-lock. 
This struck a spark and set fire to the powder, and up 
— or down — went the vessel. 

You can see that Dave Bushnell's invention was a 
very neat one ; but, for all that, luck went against it. 
He first tried his machine with only two pounds of 
powder on a hogshead loaded with stones. The pow 
der was set on fire, and up went the stones and the 
boards of the hogshead and a body of water, many feet 
into the air. If two pounds of powder would do all 
this, what would one hundred and fifty pounds do? 

In 1776 the Turtle was sent out against a big 
British ship named the Eagle, anchored in New York 
Bay. The man inside rowed his boat very well under 
water, and after some time found himself beneath the 
King's ship. He now tried to fasten the torpedo to the 
bottom, but the screw struck an iron bar and would not 
go in. Then he moved to another place, but now he 
lost the ship altogether. He could not find her again, 
and he had to row away, for he could not stay much 
longer under water. 

There is a funny story told about the man in the 
Turtle. He was a queer fellow named Abijah Ship- 
man, but called by his companions *' Long Bige". 

As he entered the craft and was about to screw 
down its cover, he opened it again and asked for a chew 
of tobacco. All those present felt in their pockets, but 
none of the weed was on hand. 
60 



I 






CAPTAIN BUSH NELL SCARES THE BRITISH 6i 

" You will have to go without it, old chap," said 
General Putman, who was present. " We Continental 
officers can't afford even a plug of tobacco. To-mor- 
row, after you have sent the Eagle on her last flight, we 
will try and raise you a whole keg of the weed." 

"That's too bad," growled Bige. "Tell you what, 
gineral, if the old Turtle don't do her duty, it's all along 
of me goin' out without tobacco." 

After he had eone Putnam and his officers watched 
anxiously for results. Time passed. Morning was at 
hand. The Eagle rode unharmed. Evidently some- 
thing had gone wrong. Had the torpedo failed, and 
was " Long Bige" resting in his wrecked machine 
on the bottom of the bay ? Putnam swept the 
waters near the Eagle with his glass. Suddenly he 
exclaimed, "There, he is." The top of the Turtle had 
just emerged, some distance from the ship. 

Abijah, fearing that he might be seen, had cast off 
the torpedo that he might go the faster. The clock 
had been set to run an hour, and at the end of that 
time there was a thundering explosion near the fleet, 
hurling up great volumes of water into the air. 

Soon there were signs of fright in the ships. The 
anchors were raised, sails were set, and off they went 
to safer quarters down the bay. They did not care to 
be too near such dangerous affairs as that. 

Boats were sent out to the aid of the Ttirtle and it 
was brought ashore at a safe place. On landing Abi- 
jah gave, in his queer way, the reasons for his failure. 

" It's just as I said, gineral ; it went to pot for want 
o that cud of tobacco. You see, I'm mighty narvous 

















JOHN BARRY, 
A gallant naval hero of Irish blood. 





without my tobacco. When I got under the ship's 
bottom, somehow the screw struck the iron bar that 
passes from the rudder pintle, and wouldn't hold on 
anyhow I could fix it. Just then I let go the oar to 
feel for a cud, to steady my narves, and I hadn't any. 
The tide swept me under her counter, and away I 
slipped top o' water. I couldn't manage to get back, so 
I pulled the lock and let the thunder-box slide. That's 
what comes of sailing short of supplies. Say, can you 
raise a cud among you now?'' 

Later on, after the British had taken the city of 
New York, two more attempts were made to blow up 
vessels in the river above the city. But they both failed, 
and in the end the British fired upon and sunk the 
Turtle. Bushnell's work was lost. The best he had 
been able to do was to give them a good scare. 

But he was not yet at the end of his schemes. He 
next tried to blow up the Cerberus, a British frigate 
that lay at anchor in Long Island Sound. This time a 
schooner saved the frigate. A powder magazine was 
set afloat, but it struck the schooner, which lay at an- 
chor near the frigate. The schooner went to pieces, 
but the Cerberus was saved. 

The most famous of Bushnell's exploits took place 
at Philadelphia, after the British had taken possession 
and brought their ships up into the Delaware River. 

One fine morning a number of kegs were seen 

floating down among the shipping. What they meant 

nobody knew. The sailors grew curious, and a boat 

set out from a vessel and picked one of them up. In a 

62 



'A\ 



CAPTAIN BUSHNELL SCARES THE BRITISH 63 

minute it went off, with the noise of a cannon, sinking 
the boat and badly hurting the man. 

This filled the British with a panic. Those terri- 
I ble kegs might do frightful damage. They must be 
some dreadful invention of the rebels. The sailors ran 
out their guns, great and small, and began to batter 
I every keg they saw with cannon balls, until there was a 
rattle and roar as if a mighty battle was going on. 
Such was the famous " Battle of the Kegs." 

This was more of Dave Bushnell's work. He had 
made and set adrift those powder kegs, fixing them so 
that they would explode on touching anything. But he 
did not understand the river and its tides. He intended 
to have them get among the ships at night, but it was 
broad day when they came down, and by that time the 
eddying waters had scattered them far and wide. So 
the powder kegs were of no more account than the tor- 
pedoes. All they did was to give the British a scare. 

Philadelphia had a poet named Francis Hopkinson, 
who wrote a poem making fun of the British, called 
"The Battle of the Kegs." We give a few verses of 
this humorous poem : 

'Twas early day, as poets say, 

Just as the sun was rising ; 
A soldier stood on a log of wood 

And saw the sun a-rising. 

As in amaze he stood to gaze 

(The truth can't he denied, sir) 
He spied a score of kegs, or more. 

Come floating down the tide, sir. 

A sailor, too, in jerkin blue, 

The strange appearance viewing. 



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First d — d his eyes in great surprise, 
Then said : " Some mischief's brewing. 

" These kegs, I'm told, the rebels hold, 
Packed up like pickled herring ; 
And they've come down to attack the town 
In this new way of ferrying." 

The cannons roar from shore to shore, 

The small arms make a rattle ; 
Since wars began, I'm sure no man 

E'er saw so strange a battle. 

The fish below swam to and fro, 

Attacked from every quarter. 
* * Why sure , ' ' thought they , ' ' the devil ' s to pay \ 

'Mong folks above the water." 

From morn to night these men of might |i 

Displayed amazing courage ; 9 

And when the sun was fairly down, a| 
Retired to sup their porrage. 

Such feats did they perform that day, 

Against those wicked kegs, sir. 
That years to come, if they get home. 

They'll make their boasts and brags, sir. 

And so it went on, verse after verse, with not muct 
poetry in it, but a good deal of fun. The British die 
not enjoy it, for people did not like to be laughed ai 
then any more than now. 



64 



CHAPTER VII. 

Captain Barry and His Rowboats Win a 
Victory over the British. 

A GALLANT NAVAL HERO OF IRISH BLOOD. 



T 



HE heroes of our navy were not all Americans 
born. More than one of them came from 
British soil, but a foot-print on the green fields 
of America soon turned them into true-blue Yankees. 
There was John Paul Jones, the gallant Scotchman. 
And there was John Barry, a bold son of green Erin. 

I have told you the story of Jones, the Scotchman, 
and now I must tell you that of Barry, the Irishman. 

John Barry was a merchant captain who was made 
commander of the Lexmgton in 1776. The next year 
he was appointed to the Effingham, a new frigate build- 
ing at Philadelphia. The British captured that city 
before the ship was ready for sea, and the Effingham, 
the Washington, and some other vessels were caught in 
a trap. They were taken up the river to Whitehill, 
above the city, and there they had to stay. Captain 
Barry, you may be sure, was not much pleased at this, 
for he was one of the men who love to be where fight- 
ing is going on. 

Soon orders came from the Navy Board to sink the 
Effingham. This made Barry's Irish blood very hot. I 
fancy he said some hard things about the members of 
the board, and swore he would do nothing of the kind. 
If the British wanted the American ships let them come 
5 65 






:S? -^5t= 



^^^^^^ 



iS'i"- 




take them. He had guns enough to give them some 
sport and was disposed to try it. 

When the members of the Navy Board heard of 
what he said, they were very angry, and in the end he 
had to sink the ship and had to apologize for his strong 
language. But time proved that he was right and the 
Navy Board was wrong. 

By this time Captain Barry was tired enough of 
being penned up, and he made up his mind to get out': 
of his cage by hook or crook. He was burning for a 
fight, and thought that if he could get down the river 
he might give the British a taste of his mettle. 

So one dark night he set out with four boats and 
twenty-seven men. He rowed down the river past the 
ships in the stream and the soldiers on shore. Some of 
the soldiers saw his boats and a few shots were fired, 
but they got safe past, and by daybreak were far down 
the broad Delaware. M 

Barry kept on until he reached Port Penn, down 
near the bay, where the Americans had a small fort. 
Here there was a chance for the work he wanted, for 
across the river he saw a large schooner flying the 
British flag. It was the Alert, carrying ten guns, and 
with it were four transports laden with food for the 
army at Philadelphia. 

This was a fine opportunity for the bold Irist 
captain. It took courage to attack a strong Englisl" 
vessel with a few rowboats, but of courage Barry had u 
full supply. 

The sun was up and it was broad day when th( 
American tars set out on their daring enterprise. Th< 

66 



CAPTAIN BARRY AND HIS ROW BOATS 



67 



if 



Alert had a wide-awake name, but it must have had a 
sleepy crew, for before the British knew there was any- 
thing wrong, Barry and his men had rowed across the 
stream and were clambering over the rail, cutlass and 
pistol in hand. 

The British sailors, when they saw this "wild Irish- 
man " and his daring tars, cutting and slashing and yell- 
ing like madmen, dropped everything and ran below in 
fright. All that Barry had to do was to put on the 
hatches and keep them there. 

In this easy fashion twenty-eight Americans cap- 
tured a British ten-gun vessel with a hundred and six- 
teen men on board. There had been nothing like that 
in all the war. 

The transports had to surrender, for they were 
under the guns of the Alert, and Barry carried his five 
prizes triumphantly to Port Penn, where he handed his 
captives over to the garrison. 

And now the daring captain made things lively for 
the foe. He sailed up and down the river and bay, and 
cut off supplies until the British army at Philadelphia 
began to suffer for food. 

What was to be done ? Should this Yankee wasp 
go on stinging the British lion ? General Howe decided 
that this would never do, and sent a frigate and a sloop- 
of-war down the river to put an end to the trouble. 

Captain Barry, finding these water-hounds sharp on 
his track, ran for Christiana Creek, hoping to get into 
shallow water where the heavy British ships could not 
follow. But the frigate was too fast, and chased him 
so closely that the best he could do was to run the 
schooner ashore and escape in his boats. 



o 




c^ 














But he was determined that they should not have 
the Alert if he could help it. Turning two of the guns 
downward, he fired through the ship's bottom, and in a 
minute the water was pouring into her hold. 

The frigate swung round and fired a broadside at 
the fleeing boats ; but all it brought back was a cheer 
of defiance from the sailors, as they struck the land and 
sprang ashore. Here they had the satisfaction of see- 
ing the schooner sink before a British foot could be set 
on her deck. 

The war vessels now went for the transports at 
Port Penn. Here a battery had been built on shore 
made of bales of hay. This was attacked by the sloop- 
of-war, but the American sharpshooters made things 
lively for her. They might have beaten her off had not 
their captain fallen with a mortal wound. The men 
now lost heart and fled to the woods, first setting fire to 
the vessels. 

Thus ended Barry's brave exploit. He had lost 
his vessels, but the British had not got them. The 
Americans were proud of his daring deed, and the 
British tried to win so brave a man to their side. Sir 
William Howe offered him twenty thousand pounds in 
money and the command of a British frigate if he would 
desert his flag. 

But he was not dealing now with a Benedict 
Arnold. 

" Not if you pay me the price and give me the 
command of the whole British fleet can you draw me 
away from the cause of my country," wrote the patriotic 
sailor. 

68 



CAPTAIN BARRY AND HIS ROW BOATS 



69 



Barry was soon rewarded for his patriotism by 
being made captain of an American frigate, the Raleigh. 
But ill-luck now followed him. He sailed from Boston 
on September 25, 1778, and three days afterward he 
had lost his ship and was a wanderer with his crew in 
the vast forests of Maine. 

Let us see how this ill-fortune came about. The 
Raleigh had not got far from port before two sails came 
in sight. Barry ran down to look at them, and found 
they were two English frigates. Two to one was too 
great odds, and the Raleigh turned her head homewards 
again. But when night shut out the frigates she wore 
round and started once more on her former course. 

The next day opened up foggy, and till noon noth- 
ing was to be seen. Then the fog lifted, and to Barry's 
surprise there were the British ships, just south of his 
own. Now for three hours it was a hot chase, and then 
down came another fog and 
the game was once more at ■s'jso^cx^-b1>. 
an end. 

But the Raleigh could 
not shake off the British bull- 
dogs. At about 9 o'clock the 
next morning they' came in 
sight again and the chase was 
renewed. It was kept up till 
late in the day. At first the 
Raleigh went so fast that her 
pursuers dropped out of sight. 
Then the wind failed her, and 
the British ships came up with 
a strong breeze. 







At 5 o'clock the fastest British frigate was close 
at hand, and Barry thought he would try what she was 
good for before the other came up. 

In a few minutes more the two ships were hurling 
iron balls into each other's sides, while the smoke of the 
conflict filled the skies. Then the fore-topmast and 
mizzen-topgallantmast of the Raleigh were shot away, 
leaving her in a crippled state. 

The British ship had now much the best of it. 
Barry tried his best to reach and board her, but she 
sailed too fast. And up from the south came the other 
ship, at swift speed. To fight them both with a crippled 
craft would have been madness, and, as he could not 
get away, Barry decided to run his ship ashore on the 
coast of Maine, which was close at hand. 

Night soon fell, and with it fell the wind. Till 
midnight the two ships drifted along, with red fire 
spurting from their sides and the thunder of cannon 
echoing from the hills. 

In the end the Raleigh ran ashore on an island 
near the coast. Here Barry fought for some time longer, 
and then set his ship on fire and went ashore with 
his men. But the British were quickly on board, put 
out the fire, and carried off their prize. Barry and his 
men made their way through the Maine woods till the 
settlements were reached. 

In 1 78 1 Captain Barry was sent across the ocean 
in the Alliance, a vessel which had taken part in the 
famous battle of the Bo7i Hojnme Richard and the 
Serapis. Here the gallant fellow fought one of his 
best battles, this time also against two British ships. 
70 



CAPTAIN BARRY AND HIS ROW BOATS 



71 



When he came upon them there was not a breath 
of wind. All sail was set, but the canvas flapped 
against the yards, and the vessel lay 

" As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean." 

The British vessels were a brig and a sloop-of-war. 
They wanted to fight as badly as did Captain Barry, 
and as they could not sail they got out sweeps and 
rowed up to the American frigate. It was weary 
work, and it took them six hours to do It. 

Then came the hails of the captains and the roar 
of cannon, and soon there was a very pretty fight, with 
the Alliance in a dangerous situation. She was too 
heavy to be moved with sweeps, like the light British 
vessels, so they got on her quarters and poured in 
broadsides, while she could reply only with a few guns. 

Barry raged like a wild bull, bidding his men fight, 
and begging for a wind. As he did so a grape-shot 
struck him in the shoulder and felled him to the deck. 
As he was carried below, a shot carried away the Ameri- 
can flag. A lusty cheer came from the British ships ; 
they thought the flag down and the victory theirs. They 
soon saw it flying again. 

But the Allia?ice was in sore straits. She was 
getting far more than she could give, and had done 
little harm to her foes. At length a lieutenant came 
down to the wounded captain. 

" We cannot handle the ship and are being cut to 
pieces," he said. " The rigging is in tatters and the 
foretopmast in danger, and the carpenter reports two 
serious leaks. Eight or ten of our people are killed 
and more wounded. The case seems hopeless, sir ; 
shall we strike the colors ?" 





*' No !" roared Barry, sitting bolt upright. " Not 
on your life ! If the ship can't be fought without me, 
then carry me on deck." 

The lieutenant went up and reported, and the 
story soon got to the men. 

" Good for Captain Barry," they shouted. " We'll 
stand by the old man." 

A minute later a change came. A ripple of water 
was seen. Soon a breeze rose, the sails filled out, 
and the Alliance slipped forward and yielded to her 
helm. 

This was what the brave Barry had been waiting 
for. It was not a case of whistling for a wind, as 
sailors often do, but of hoping and praying for a wind. 
It came just in time to save the Alliance from lowering 
her proud flag, or from going to the bottom with it 
still flying, as would have suited her bold captain the 
better. 

Now she was able to give her foes broadside for 
broadside, and you may be sure that her gunners, who 
had been like dogs wild to get at the game, now poured 
in shot so fast and furious that they soon drove the 
foe in terror from his guns. In a short time, just as 
Captain Barry was brought on deck with his wound 
dressed, their flags came down. 

The prizes proved to be the Atlanta and the Tre- 
passy. That fight was near the last in the war. At a 
later date Captain Barry had the honor of carrying 
General Lafayette home to France in his ship. 
72 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Captain Tucker Honored by George 
Washington. 

THE DARING ADVENTURES OF THE HERO OF MARBLEHEAD. 

C''"~1aptain Samuel Tucker was a Yankee boy who 
began his career by running away from home 
i— J and shipping as a cabin-boy on the British 
sloop-of-war Royal George. It was a good school for 
a seaman, and when his time was up he knew his busi- 
ness well. 

There was no war then and he shipped as second- 
mate on a merchant vessel sailing from Salem. Here 
he soon had a taste of warlike life and showed what kind 
of metal was in him. The Mediterranean Sea in those 
days was infested by pirates sailing from the Moorish 
ports. It was the work of these to "capture merchant 
ships, take them into port and sell their crews as slaves. 

On Tucker's first voyage from Salem two of these 
piratical craft, swift corsairs from Algiers, came in sight 
and began a chase of the merchantman. 

What could be done ? There was no hope to run 
away from those fleet-footed sea-hounds. There was 
no hope to beat them off in a fight. The men were in 
a panic and the captain sought courage in rum, and was 
soon too drunk to handle his ship. 

Tucker came to the rescue. Taking the helm, he 
put it hard down and headed straight for the pirates. 
It looked as if he was sailing straight for destruction, 

73 












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but he knew what he was about. The Yankee schooner, 
if It could not sail as fast, could be handled easier than 
the Algerines, with their lateen sails, and by skillful 
steering he got her into such a position that the pirates 
could not fire into him without hurting one another. 

Try as they would, Mate Tucker kept his vessel in 
this position, and held her there until the shades of 
night fell. Then he slipped away, and by daylight was 
safe in port. You may see from this that Samuel 
Tucker was a bold and a smart man and an able seaman. 

After that he was at one time an officer in the Brit- 
ish navy and at another a merchant captain. He was in 
London when the Revolution began. His courage and 
skill were so well known that he was offered a commis- 
sion in either the army or the navy, if he was willing to 
serve " his gracious Majesty." 

Tucker forgot where he was, and rudely replied, 
" Hang his gracious Majesty! Do you think I am the 
sort of man to fight against my country?" 

Those were rash words to be spoken in London. 
A charge of treason was brought against him and he 
had to seek safety in flight. For a time he hid in the 
house of a country inn-keeper who was his friend. 

Then a chance came to get on shipboard and 
escape from the country. In this way he got back to 
his native land. 

It was not only the English who knew Captain 
Tucker's ability. He was known in America as well 
No doubt there were many who had heard how he had 
served the pirate Moors. He had not long been home 
when General Washington sent him a commission as 

74 



CAPTAIN TUCKER HONORED 



75 



captain of the ship Franklin and ordered him to get to 
sea at once. 

The messenger with the commission made his way 
to the straggling old town of Marblehead, where Tucker 
lived. Inquiring for him in the town, he was directed 
to a certain house. 

Reaching this, the messenger saw a roughly-dressed 
and weather-beaten person working in the yard, with an 
old tarpaulin hat on his head and a red bandanna hand- 
kerchief tied loosely round his neck. 

The man, thinking him an ordinary laborer, called 
out from his horse : 

"Say, good fellow, can you tell if the Honorable 
Samuel Tucker lives here or hereabouts ?" 

The workman looked up with a quizzical glance 
from under the brim of his tarpaulin and replied : 

" Honorable, honorable ! There's none of that 
name in Marblehead. He must be one of the Salem 
Tuckers. I'm the only Samuel Tucker in this town." 

"Anyhow, this is where I was told to stop. A 
house standing alone, with its gable-end to the sea. 
This is the only place I've seen that looks like that." 

"Then I must be the Tucker you want, honorable 
or not. What is it you have got to say to him ?" 

He soon learned, and was glad to receive the news. 
Early the next morning he had left home for the port 
where the Franklin lay, and not many days passed be- 
fore he was out at sea. 

The Franklin, under his command, proved one of 
the most active ships afloat. She sent in prizes in 
numbers. More than thirty were taken in 1776 — ships, 




THE PRESS GANG. 

This was a means of forcing men 

into the Navy, practiced in 

the early part of the 

igth Century. 






'^f^ 



brigs and smaller vessels, including "a brigantine from 
Scotland worth fifteen thousand pounds." 

These were not all captured without fighting. Two 
British brigs were taken so near to Marblehead that 
the captain's wife and sister, hearing the sound of can- 
non, went up on a high hill close by and saw the fight 
through a spy-glass. m 

The next year Captain Tucker was put in com- ■ 
mand of the frigate Boston, and in 1778 he took John 
Adams to France as envoy from the United States. 

It was a voyage full of incidents. They passed 
through days of storm, which nearly wrecked the ship. 
Many vessels were seen, and the Boston was chased 
by three men-of-war. 

She ran away from these, and soon after came 
across a large armed vessel, which Captain Tucker de- 
cided to fight. When the drum called the men to quar- 
ters, Mr. Adams seized a musket and joined the marines. 

The captain requested him to go below. Finding 
that he was not going to obey, Tucker laid a hand on 
his shoulder and said firmly : 

" Mr. Adams, I am commanded by the Continental 
Congress to deliver you safe in France. You must go 
below." 

Mr. Adams smiled and complied. The next min- 
ute there came a broadside from the stranger. There 
was no response from the Boston. Other shots came, 
and still no reply. At length the blue-jackets began to 
grumble. Looking them in the eyes. Tucker said, in 
quizzical tones : 

"Hold on, lads. I want to get that ^^<g without 
breaking the shell." 
76 



k 



CAPTAIN TUCKER HONORED 



71 



In a few minutes more, having got into the posi- 
tion he wished, he raked the enemy from stem to stern 
with a broadside. That one sample was enough. She 
struck her flag without waiting for a second. Soon 
after the envoy was safely landed in France. 

Numbers of anecdotes are told of Captain Tucker, 
who was a man much given to say odd and amusing 
things. 

Once he fell in with a British frigate which had 

" been sent in search of him. He had made himself a 

thorn in the British lion's side and was badly wanted. Up 

came Tucker boldly, with the English flag at his peak. 

He was hailed, and replied that he was Captain 
Gordon, of the English navy, and that he was out in 
search of the Boston, commanded by the rebel Tucker. 

" If I can sight the ship I'll carry him to New York, 
dead or alive," he said. 

" Have you ever seen him?" 

"Well, I've heard of him ; they say he is a tough 
customer." 

While talking, he had been manoeuvering to gain 
a raking position. Just as he did so, a sailor in the 
British tops cried, — 

" Look out below ! That is Tucker himself." 

The Englishman was in a trap. The Boston had 
him at a great disadvantage. There was nothing to do 
but to strike his flag and this he did without firing a gun. 

When Charleston was taken by the British, the 
Boston was one of the vessels cooped up there and lost. 
Captain Tucker was taken prisoner. After his ex- 
change, as he had no ship, he took the sloop-of-war 










LIEUT. STEPHEN DECATUR, 
The hero of the war with Tri- 
poli, and as Comniodore 
dictated peace with 
Algiers. 








Thor?i, one of his former prizes, and went out cruising 
as a privateer. 

After a three weeks' cruise the Thorn met an Eng- 
lish ship of twenty-three guns. 

" She means to f^ght us," said the captain to his 
men, after watching her movements. " If we go along- 
side her like men she will be ours in thirty minutes; if 
we can't go as men we have no business there at all. 
Every man who is willing to fight go down the star- 
board gangway; all others can go down the larboard." 
Every soul of them took the starboard. 

He manoeuvered so that in a few minutes the ves- 
sels lay side by side. The Englishman opened with a 
broadside that did little damage. The Thorii replied 
with a destructive fire, and kept it up so hotly that within 
thirty minutes a loud cry came from the English ship : 

" Quarters, for God's sake ! Our ship is sinking. 
Our men are dying of their wounds." 

" How can you expect quarters while your flag is 
flying?" demanded Captain Tucker. 

" Our halliards are shot away." 

"Then cut away your ensign staff, or you'll all bel 
dead men." 

It was done and the firing ceased. A dreadful 
execution had taken place on the Englishman's deck, 
more than a third of her crew being dead and wounded, •' 
while blood was everywhere. 

And so we take our leave of Captain Tucker. He 
was one of the kind of sailors that everyone likes to 
read about. 
78 



CHAPTER IX. 
The Last Naval Battle of the Revolution. 

THE HEROIC CAPTAIN BARNEY IN THE " HY DER ALI" CAPTURES THE 
"GENERAL MONK." 

mou must think by this time that we had many bold 
and brave sailors in the Revolution. So we had. 
You have not been told all their exploits, but only 
the most gallant ones. There is one more story that is 
worth telling before we leave the Revolutionary times. 

If you are familiar with American history you will 
remember that Lord Cornwallis surrendered to General 
Washington in October, 1781. That is generally 
looked on as the end of the war. There was no more 
fighting on land. But there was one bold affair on the 
water in April, 1782, six monjths after the work of the 
armies was done. 

This was in Delaware Bay, where Captain Barry 
had taken a war vessel with a few rowboats. The hero 
of this later exploit was Captain Joshua Barney, and 
he was as brave a man as John Barry. 

Captain Barney had seen service through the whole 
war. Like John Paul Jones, an accident had made him 
a captain of a ship when he was a mere boy. He was 
only seventeen, yet he handled his ship with the skill of 
an old mariner. War broke out right afterward and he 
became an officer on the Hornet, though still only a b 
Soon after he had some lively service 
and captured a British privateer with th 
Sachem. 





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Then he had some bad fortune, for he was taken 
prisoner while bringing in a prize vessel, and was put 
on the terrible prison-ship Jersey. Few of the poor 
fellows on that vessel lived to tell the story of the 
frightful way in which they were treated. But young 
Barney managed to escape, and went to sea again as 
captain of a merchant vessel. In this he was chased by 
a British war-vessel, the Rosebud. Shall I tell you the 
way that Captain Barney plucked the petals of the 
Rosebud? He fired a crowbar at her out of one of his 
cannon. This new kind of cannon-ball went whirling 
through the air and came ripping and tearing through 
the sails of the British ship. After making rags of her 
sails, it hit her foremast and cut a big slice out of this. 
The Americans now sailed quietly away. They could 
laugh at John Bull's Rosebud. 

On the 8th of April, 1782, Captain Barney too! 
command of th.^. Hyder AH. This was a merchant shi^ 
which had been bought by the State of Pennsylvania! 
It was not fit for a warship, but the State was in a> 
hurry, so eight gun-ports were cut on each side, and 
the ship was mounted with sixteen six-pounder cannon. 
Then she set sail from Philadelphia in charge of a fleet 
of merchant vessels. 

On they went, down the Delaware river and bay, 
until Cape May was reached. Here Captain Barney 
saw that there was trouble ahead. Three British 
vessels came in sight. One of these was the frigate 
Quebec. The others were a brig, the Fair American^ 
and a sloop-of-war, the General Monk. 

Before such a fleet the Hyder All was like a spar- 
row before a hawk. Captain Barney at once signalled 
80 



THE LAST NAVAL BATTLE 



8i 



his merchant ships to make all haste up the bay. Away 
they flew like a flock of frightened birds, except one, 
whose captain thought he would slip round the cape 
and, get to sea. But the British soon swallowed up 
him and his ship, so he paid well for his smartness. 

On up the bay went the other merchantmen, with 
the Hyder AH in the rear and the British squadron hot 
on their track. The frigate sailed into a side channel, 
thinking it would find a short-cut and so head them ofl". 
Captain Barney watched this movement with keen 
eyes. The big ship had put herself out of reach for a 
time. He knew well that she could not get through 
that way, and laid his plans to have some sport with the 
small fish while the big fish was away. 

The brig Fair American was a privateer and a fast 
one. It came up with a fair breeze, soon reaching the 
Hyder Ali, which expected a fight. But the privateer 
wanted prizes more than cannon balls, and went straight 
on, firing a broadside that did no harm. Captain Bar- 
ney let her go. The sloop-of-war was coming fast 
behind, and this was enough for him to attend to. It 
had more guns than his ship and they were double the 
weight — twelve-pounders to his six-pounders. 

As the war sloop came near, Barney turned to his 
helmsman, and said : 

*' I want you to go opposite to my orders. If I 
tell you to port your helm, you are to put it hard-a- 
starboard. Do you understand ?" 

"Aye, aye!" answered the tar. 

Up came the General Monk, its captain thinking 
to make an easy prize, as the Fair American had been 

6 



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let go past without a shot. When about a dozen yards 
away the British captain hailed : 

" Strilce your colors, or I will fire !" 

" Hard-a-port your helm," roared Barney to the 
man at the wheel. " Do you want her to run aboard 

?M 

The order was heard on board the enemy, and the 
captain gave orders to meet the expected movement. 
But hard-a-starboard went the helm, and the Hydei' AH 
swung round in front of the enemy, whose bowsprit 
caught and became entangled in her fore-rigging. 

This gave the American ship a raking position, and 
in a moment the grim tars were hard at work with their 
guns. Broadsides were poured in as fast as they could 
load and fire, and every shot swept from bow to stern. 
The Englishman, though he had double the weight of 
metal, could not get out of the awkward position in 
which Barney had caught him, and his guns did little 
harm. In less than half an hour down went his flag. 

It was none too soon. The frigrate had seen the 
fight from a distance, and was making all haste to get 
out of its awkward position and take a hand in the 
game. Barney did not even wait to ask the name of 
his prize, but put a crew on board and bade them make 
all haste to Philadelphia. 

He followed, steering now for the Fair American, 
But the privateer captain had seen the fate of the Gen- 
eral Monk and concluded that he had business else- 
where. So he ran away instead of fighting, and soon 
ran ashore. The Hyder AH left him there and made 
all haste up stream. The frigate had by this time got 
82 



THE LAST NAVAL BATTLE 



83 



' out of her side channel, and was coming up under full 
sail. So Captain Barney crowded on all sail also and 
fled away after his prize. 

If the frigate had got within gunshot it would soon 
have settled the question, for it could have sunk the 
Hyder AH with a broadside. But it was not fast 
enough, and after a speedy run the victor and her prize 
drew up beside a Philadelphia wharf. 

Never had the good people of the Quaker City 
gazed on such a sight as now met their eyes. Nothing 
had been done to remove the marks of battle. The 
ships came in as they had left the fight. Shattered 
bulwarks, ragged rents in the hulls, sails in tatters and 
drooping cordage told the story of the desperate battle. 

And the decks presented a terrible picture. Blood 
was everywhere. On the General Monk were stretched 
the dead bodies of twenty men, while twenty-six 
wounded lay groaning below. The Hyder AH had 
suffered much less, having but four killed and eleven 
wounded. 

In all the Revolutionary war there have been few 
more brilliant actions, and his victory gave Joshua Bar- 
ney a high standing among the naval commanders of 
the young Republic. 

Shall we take up the story of the gallant Barney at 
a later date ? Thirty years after his victory over the 
General Monk there was war as^ain between Americans 
and Britons, and Commodore Barney, now an old man, 
took an active part. 

He started out in the early days of the war with 
no better vessel than the schooner Rossie, of fourteen 
guns and 120 men. He soon had lively times. The 



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Rossie was a clipper, and he could run away from an 
enemy too strong to fight, though running away was 
not much to his taste. 

In his first cruise he was out forty-five days, and 
in that time he captured fourteen vessels and i66 
prisoners. 

In a month's time he was at sea again. Now he 
got among British frigates and had to trust to the heels 
of his little craft. But in spite of the great ships that 
haunted the seas, new prizes fell into his hands, one being 
taken after an hour's fight. In all, the vessels and car- 
goes taken by him were worth nearly $3,000,000, though 
most of this wealth went to the bottom of the sea. 

The next year (18 13) he was made Commodore of! 
a fleet of gun-boats in Chesapeake Bay. Here for a 
year he had very little to do. Then the British sailed 
up the Chesapeake intending to capture Washington 
and Baltimore. Barney did not hesitate to attack them, 
and did considerable damage, though they were much 
too strong for his small fleet. 

At length there came from the frightened people 
at Washington the order to burn his fleet, and, much 
against his will, he was forced to consign his gunboats 
to the flames. With his men, about 400 in all, he joined, 
the army assembled to defend the capital. 

These sailor-soldiers made the best fight of any of 
the troops that sought to save Washington from cap- 
ture, but during the fight Commodore Barney received 
a wound that brought his fighting days to an end. 
Fortunately there was little more fighting to do, and 
peace reigned over his few remaining years of life. 
84 



CHAPTER X. 

The Moorish Pirates of the Mediterranean. 



OUR NAVY TEACHES THEM A LESSON IN HONOR. 

SUPPOSE all the readers of this book know what a 
pirate is. For those who may not know, I would 
say that a pirate is a sea-robber. They are terri- 



I 



ble fellows, these pirates, who live by murder and 
plunder. In old times there were many ship-loads of them 
upon the seas, who captured every merchant vessel they 
met with and often killed all on board. 

There have been whole nations of pirates, and that 
as late as a hundred years ago. By looking at an atlas 
you will see at the north of Africa the nations of Al- 
giers, Tunis and Tripoli. The people of these nations 
are called Moors, and they used to be great sea-rob 
bers. They sent out fast vessels in the Mediterranean 
Sea and no merchant ship there was safe. Hundreds 
of such ships were taken and robbed. Their crews 
were not killed, but they were sold as slaves, which was 
nearly as bad. 

Would you not think that the powerful nations of 
Europe would soon put a stop to this ? They could 
have sent fleets and armies there and conquered the 
Moors. But instead of that they paid them to let their 
ships alone. 

Not long after the Revolution these sea-robbers 
began to make trouble for the United States. The new 
nation, you should know, had no navy. After it was done 

85 





fighting with the British it was so poor that it sold all 
its ships. But it soon had many merchant ships, sail- 
ing to all seas, which were left to take care of them- 
selves the best way they could. 

What did the pirates of Algiers care for this young 
nation across the Atlantic, that had rich merchant ships 
and not a war vessel to protect them ? Very little, I 
fancy. It is certain that they soon began to capture 
American ships and sell their sailors for slaves. In a 
short time nearly two hundred American sailors were 
workinof as slaves In the Moorish states. 

The United States did not act very bravely. In- 
stead of sending out a fleet of war-ships, it made ai 
treaty with Algiers and agreed to pay a certain sum of 
money every year to have its vessels let alone. While 
the treaty lasted more than a million dollars were paid 
to the Dey of Algiers. If that much had been spent 
for strong frigates the United States would not have 
had the disgrace of paying tribute to the Moors. But 
the natives of Europe were doing the same, so the 
disgrace belonged to them also. 

The trouble with the Moors got worse and worse, 
and the Dey of Algiers became very insolent to Ameri- 
cans. 

"You are my slaves, for you pay me tribute," he 
said to the captain of an American frigate. " I have a 
right to order you as I please." 

When the other pirate nations, Tunis and Tripoli, 
found that Algiers was being paid, they asked for trib- 
ute too. And they began to capture American ships 
and sell their crews into slavery. And their monarchs 
were as insolent as the Dey. 

86 



THE MOORISH PIRATES 



87 



The United States at that time was young and 
poor. It had not been twenty years free from 
British armies. But it was proud, if it was poor, and 
did not Hke to have its captains and consuls ordered 
about like servants. So the President and Congrress 
thought it was time to teach the Moors a lesson. 

This was in 1801. By that time a fleet of war 
vessels had been built, and a squadron of these was sent 
to the Mediterranean under Commodore Richard Dale. 
This was the man who had been in Paul Jones's great 
fight and had received the surrender of the captain of 
the Serapis. He was a bold, brave officer, but Con- 
gress had ordered him not to fight if he could help it, 
and therefore very little was done. 

But there was one battle the story of which we 
must tell. Commodore Dale had three frigates and 
one little schooner, the Enterprise. All the honor of 
the cruise came to this little 
craft. 

She was on her way to 
Malta when she came in 
sight of a low, long vessel 
at whose mast-head floated 
the flag of Tripoli. When 
this came near it was seen 
to be a corsair which had 
long waged war on American 
merchantmen. 

Before Captain Sterrett 
of the E?iterprise, had time 
to hail, the Moors began 
to fire at his ship. He was 





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told not to fight if he could help it, but Sterrett decided 
that he could not help it. He brought his schooner 
within pistol shot of the Moor, and poured broadsides 
into the pirate ship as fast as the men could load and 
fire. The Moors replied. For two hours the battle con- 
tinued, with roar of cannon and rattle of muskets and 
dense clouds of smoke. 

The vessels were small and their guns were light, 
so that the battle was long drawn out. 

At last the fire of the corsair ceased, and a whiff of 
air carried away the smoke. Looking across the waves, 
the sailors saw that the flag of Tripoli no longer waved, 
and three hearty American cheers rang out. The tars 
left their guns and were getting ready to board their 
prize, when up again went the flag of Tripoli and 
another broadside was fired into their vessel. 

Their cheers of triumph turned to cries of rage. 
Back to their guns they rushed, and fought more 
fiercely than before. They did not care now to take 
the prize ; they wished to send her, with her crew of 
villains, to the bottom of the sea. 

The Moors fought as fiercely as the Americans. 
Running their vessel against the Enterprise, they tried 
again and again to leap on board and finish the battle 
with pistol and cutlass ; but each time they were driven 
back. 

The men at the guns meanwhile poured in two 
more broadsides, and once more down came the flag of' 
Tripoli. 

Captain Sterrett did not trust the traitors this time. 
He bade his men keep to their guns, and ordered the 
Tripolitans to bring their vessel under the quarter of 

88 



i 



I 



THE MOORISH PIRATES 

the Enterprise. They had no sooner done so than a 
throng of the Moorish pirates tried to board the 
schooner. 

'* No quarter for the treacherous dogs !" was the 
cry of the furious sailors. " Pour it into them ; send 
the thieves to the bottom !" 

The E^iterprise now drew off to a good position 
and raked the foe with repeated broadsides. The 
Moors were bitterly punished for their treachery. Their 
deck ran red with blood, men and officers lay bleeding 
in throngs, the cries of the wounded rose above the 
noise of the cannon. The flag was down again, but no 
heed was paid to that. The infuriated sailors were 
bent on sending the pirate craft to the bottom. 

At length the corsair captain, an old man with a 
flowing white beard, appeared at the side of his ship, 
sorely wounded, and, with a low bow, cast his flag into 
the sea. Then Captain Sterrett, though he still felt 
like sinking the corsair, ordered the firing to stop. 

The prize proved to be named the Tripoli. What 
was to be done with it ? Captain Sterrett had no 
authority to take prizes. At length he concluded that 
he would teach the Bashaw of Tripoli a lesson. 

He sent Lieutenant David Porter, a daring young 
officer who was yet to make his mark, on the prize, 
telling him to make a wreck of her. 

Porter was glad to obey those orders. He made 
the captive Tripolitans cut down their masts, throw all 
their cannon and small arms into the sea, cut their sails 
to pieces, and fling all their powder overboard. He left 
them only a jury-mast and a small sail. 




♦♦# 



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^1^14) 



u 



'See here," said Porter to the Moorish captain, 
" we have not lost a man, while fifty of your men are 
killed or wounded. You may go home now and tell 
this to your Bashaw, and say to him that in the time to 
come the only tribute he will get from the United 
States will be a tribute of powder and balls," 

Away drifted the wrecked hulk, followed by the 
jeers of the American sailors, who were only sorry that 
the treacherous pirate had not been scuttled and sent 
to the bottom of the sea. 

When it reached Tripoli the Bashaw was mad with 
rage. Instead of the plunder and the white slaves he 
had looked for, he had only a dismantled hulk. 

The old captain showed him his wounds and told 
him how hard he had fought. But his fury was not to 
be appeased. He had the white bearded commander 
led through the streets tied to a jackass — the greatest 
disgrace he could have inflicted on any Moor. This 
was followed by five hundred blows with a stick. 

The Moorish sailors declared that the Americans 
had fired enchanted shot. This, and the severe punish- 
ment of the captain of the Tripoli, so scared the sailors 
of the city that for a year after the fierce Bashaw found 
it next to impossible to muster a ship's crew. They did 
not care to be treated as the men on the Tripoli had 
been. 

Such was the first lesson which the sailors of the 
new nation gave to the pirates of the Mediterranean. 
It was the beginning of a policy which was to put 
an end to the piracy which had prevailed for centuries 
on those waters. 
90 



CHAPTER XL 

The Young Decatur and His Brilliant 
Deeds at Tripoli. 

HOW OUR NAVY BEGAN AND ENDED A FOREIGN WAR. 

I"" N the ship Essex, one of the fleet that was sent to 
the Mediterranean to deal with the Moorish 
—J pirates, there was a brave young officer named 
Stephen Decatur. He was Httle more than a boy, for 
he was just past twenty-one years of age, but he had 
been in the fight between the EnterpiHse and the 
Tj'ipoli, and was so bold and daring that he was sure to 
make his mark. 

I must tell you how he first showed himself a true 
American. It was when the Essex was lying in the 
harbor at Barcelona, a seaport of Spain. The Essex 
was a handsome little vessel, and there was much praise 
of her in the town, and -people of fashion came to see 
her and invited her officers to their houses and treated 
them with great respect. 

Now there was a Spanish war-ship lying in the 
port, of the kind called a xebec, a sort of three-masted 
vessel common in the Mediterranean Sea. 

The officers of this ship did not like to see so much 
respect given to the Americans and so little to them- 
selves. They grew jealous and angry, and did all they 
could to annoy and insult the officers of the Essex. 
Every time one of her boats rowed past the xebec it 
would be challenged and ugly things said. 

91 












^^^^ 



The Americans bore all this quietly for a while. 
One day Captain Bainbridge of the Essex was talked 
to In an abusive way, and said little back. Another 
time a boat, under command of Lieutenant Decatur, 
came under the guns of the xebec, and the Spaniards 
on the deck hailed him with insulting words. This 
was more than young blood could stand, and he called 
to the officer of the deck and asked him what that 
meant, but the haughty Spaniard would give him no 
satisfaction. 

"Very well," said Decatur. "I will call to see 
you in the morning. Pull off, lads." 

The next morning Decatur had himself rowed over 
to the xebec, and went on board. He asked for the 
officer who was in charge the night before. 

"He has gone ashore," was the reply. 
" Well, then," said Decatur, in tones that every one 
on board could hear, " tell him that Lieutenant Decatur 
of the frigate Essex calls him a cowardly scoundrel, and 
when he meets him on shore he will cut his ears off." 

There were no more insults after that. Decatur 
spoke as if he meant what he said, and the officers of 
the xebec did not want to lose their ears. But the 
United States Minister to Spain took up the matter, 
and did not rest until he got a full apology for the 
insults to the Americans. 

I have told this little story to let you see what kind 
of a man Stephen Decatur was. But this was only a 
minor affair. He was soon to make himself famous by 
one of the most brilliant deeds in the history of the 
American navy. 
92 



DECATUR AT TRIPOLI 



93 



In October, 1802, a serious disaster came to the 
American fleet. The frigate Philadelphia was chasing ^ 
a runaway vessel into the harbor of TripoH when she ^ 
got in shoal water and suddenly ran fast aground on a 
shelf of rock. 

Here was an awkward position. Captain Bain- 
bridofe threw overboard most of his cannon and his 
anchors and everything that would lighten the ship, 
even cutting down his foremast, but all to no purpose. 
She still clunor fast to the rock. 

Soon a flock of gunboats came down the harbor 
and saw the bad fix the Americans were in. Bainbridge (<^^i 
was quite unable to fight them, for they could have 
kept out of the way of his guns and made kindling wood 
of his vessel. There was nothing to do but to surren- 
der. So he flooded the powder magazine, threw all 
the small arms overboard, and knocked holes in the 
bottom of the ship. Then he hauled down his flag. 

The gunboats now came up like a flock of hawks, 
and soon the Moors were clambering over the rails. In 
a minute more they were in every part of the ship, 
breaking open chests and store rooms and plundering 
officers and men. Two of them would hold an officer 
and a third rob him of his watch and purse, his sword, 
and everything of value he possessed. The plunder- 
ing did not stop till the captain knocked down one of 
the Moors for trying fro rob him of an ivory miniature 
of his wife. 

Then the Americans were made to get into the 
gunboats and taken ashore. They were marched in 
triumph through the streets and the men were thrown 
into prison. The officers were invited to supper by the 





COMMODORE M. C. PERRY, 

Who made a treaty with Japan, and 

opened up that country. 




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Bashaw, and treated as if they were guests. But as 
soon as the supper was over, they, too, were taken to 
the prison rooms in which they were to stay till the end 
of the war. 

The Tripolitans afterwards got the Philadelphia 
off the rocks during a high tide, plugged up the holes in 
her bottom, fished up her guns and anchors, and fitted 
her up for war. The Bashaw was proud enough of his 
fine prize, which had not cost him a man or a shot, and 
was a better ship than he had ever seen before. 

When the American commodore learned of the loss 
of the PhiladelpJiia he was in a bad state of mind. To 
lose one of his best ships in this way was not at all to 
his liking, for he was a man who did not enjoy losing a 
ship. And to know that the Moors had it and were 
making a war-ship of it was a hard thing to bear. 

From his prison Captain Bainbridge wrote letters 
to Commodore Preble, which the Moors read and then 
sent out to the fleet. They did not know that the letters 
had postscripts written in lemon-juice which only came 
out when the sheet of paper was held to the heat of a 
fire. In these the captain asked the commodore to try 
and destroy the captured ship. 

Commodore Preble was a daring officer, and was \ 
ready enough for this, if he only knew how it could be 
done. Lieutenant Decatur was then in command of 
the Enterprise, the schooner which had fought with the 
Tripoli. He asked the commodore to let him take the 
EiiterpiHse into the harbor and try and destroy the cap-~ 
tured ship. He knew he could do it, he said, if he only 
had a chance. At any rate he wanted to try. 
94 



DECATUR AT TRIPOLI 

Commodore Preble shook his head. It could not 
be done that way. He would only lose his own vessel 
and his men. But there was a way it might be done. 
The Moors might be taken by surprise and their prize 
burned under their eyes. It was a desperate enterprise. 
Every man who took part in it would be in great dan- 
ger of death. But that danger did not give much trouble 
to bold young Decatur, who was as ready to fight as he 
was to eat. 

What was the commodore's plan, do you ask ? 
Well, it was this. Some time earlier the Enterprise 
had captured the Mastico, a vessel from Tripoli. Preble 
gave this craft the new name of the Intrepid and pro- 
posed to send it into the harbor. The Moors did not 
know of its capture and would not suspect it, and thus 
it might get up close to the Philadelphia. 

Decatur was made commander and called for vol- 
unteers. Every man and boy on the Enterprise wanted 
to go, and he picked out over seventy of them. As he 
was about to leave the deck a boy came up and asked 
if he couldn't go, too. 

" Why do you want to go. Jack ?" 

"Well, Captain, you see, I'd kind o' like to see the 
country." 

This was such a queer reason that Decatur laughed 
and told him he might go. 

One dark night, on February 3, 1804, the Intrepid 
left the rest of the fleet and set sail for the harbor of 
Tripoli. The little Siren went with her for company. 
But the weather proved stormy, and it was not until 
the 15th that they were able to carry out their plan. 







COM. THOMAS MACDONOUGH, 

In command of the American fleet 

at the Battle of Plattsburgh, 

won a victory over 

the British. 




/^4 



^^ 







About noon they came in sight of the spires of the 
city of Tripoli. Decatur did not wish to reach the 
Philadelphia until nightfall, but he was afraid to take 
in sail, for fear of being suspected, so he dragged a 
cable and a number of buckets behind to lessen his 
speed. 

After a time the Philadelphia came in sight. She 
was anchored well in the harbor, under the guns of two 
heavy batteries. Two cruisers and a number of gun- 
boats lay near by. It was a desperate and dangerous 
business which Decatur and his tars had taken in hand, 
but they did not let that trouble them. 

It was about ten o'clock at night when the Intrepid ' 
came into the harbor's mouth. The wind had fallen 
and she crept slowly along over the smooth sea. The 
Siren stayed behind. Her work was that of rescue in 
case of trouble. Straight for the frigate went the de-. 
voted crew. A new moon sent its soft lustre over the 
waves. All was still in city and fleet. 

Soon the Intrepid came near the frigate. Only 
twelve men were visible on her deck. The others were 
lying flat in the shadow on the bulwarks, each with cut- 
lass tightly clutched in hand. 

" What vessel is that ?" was asked in Moorish 
words from the frigate. 

" The Mastico, from Malta," answered the pilot in 
the same tongue. " We lost our anchors . in the gale 
and were nearly wrecked. Can we ride by your ship 
for the night ?" 

The permission asked was granted, and a boat from 
the Intrepid made a line fast to the frigate, while the 
96 




FRONT VIEW OF THE "OLYMPIC 



„ .„. .... -„,.„. B..,v_.,o. ..» - -^- .'•,";n,.=r;-.2r.riS"'.,?-s'" '"""■ ''" 



ready.'' The great gu 



DECATUR AT TRIPOLI 



97 



men on the latter threw a Hne aboard. The ropes were 
passed to the hidden men on the deck, who pulled on 
them lustily. 

As the little craft came up, the men on the frigate 
saw her anchors hanging in place. 

" You have lied to us!" came a sharp hail. " Keep 
off ! Cut those fasts !" 

Others had seen the concealed men, and the cry of 
"Americanos !" was raised. 

The alarm came too late. The little craft was now 
close up and a hearty pull brought her against the hull 
of the large ship. 

" Boarders away!" came the stirring order. 

" Follow me, lads," cried Decatur, springing for 
the chain-plates of the frigate. Men and officers were 
after him hot foot. Midshipman Charles Morris was 
the first to reach the deck, with Decatur close behind. 

The surprise was complete. There was no resist- 
ance. Few of the Moors had weapons, and they fled 
from the Americans like frightened sheep. On all 
sides the splashing of water could be heard as they 
leaped overboard. In a few minutes they were all gone 
and Decatur and his men were masters of the ship. 

They would have given much to be able to take 
the noble frieate out of the harbor. But that could not | 
be done and every minute made their danger greater. ' 
All they could do was to set her on fire and retreat with 
all speed. 

Not a moment was lost. Quick-burning material 
was brought from the Intrepid, put in good spots and 
set on fire. So rapidly did the flames spread that the ] 

7 



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i 






men who were lighting fires on the lower decks had 
scarcely time to escape from the fast-spreading con 
flagration. 

Flames poured from the port-holes, and sparks fe 
on the deck of the smaller vessel. If it should toucli 
the powder that was stored amidships death would come 
to them all. With nervous haste they cut the ropes: 
and the Intrepid was pushed off. Then the sweeps 
were thrust out and the little craft rowed away. 

"Now, lads, give them three good cheers," cried! 
Decatur. 

Up sprang the jack-tars, and three ringing cheers 
were given, sounding above the roar of the flames anc 
of the cannon that were now playing on the little vesse 
from the batteries and gun-boats. Then to their sweep 
went the tars again, and drove their vessel every minutej 
farther away. 

As they went they saw the flames catch the rig; 
ging and run up the masts of the doomed frigate. Ther 
great bursts of flame shot out from the open hatch 
ways. The loaded guns went off one after anotherj 
some of them firing into the town. It was a lurid ano 
striking spectacle, such as is seldom seen. 

Bainbridcre and his fellow-officers saw the flames 

o i 

from their prison window and hailed them with lustl 
cheers. The officers of the Siren saw them also, an 
sent their boats into the harbor to aid the fugitives, i 
necessary. But it was not necessary. Not a man hai 
been hurt. In an hour after the flames were seei 
Decatur and his daring crew came in triumph out 0| 
the bay of Tripoli. 
98 






DECATUR AT TRIPOLI 



99 



Never had been known a more perfect and success- 
ful naval exploit. All Europe talked of it with admira- 
tion when the news was received. Lord Nelson, the 
greatest of England's sailors, said, " It was the most bold 
and daring act of the ages." When the tidings reached the 
United States, Decatur, young as he was, was rewarded 
by Congress with the title of captain. 

We are not yet done with the Intrepid, in which 
Decatur played so brilliant a part. She was tried again 
in work of the same kind, but with a more tragic end. 

A room was built in her and filled with powder, 
shot and shells. Combustibles of various kinds were 
piled around it, so that it could not fail to go off, if set 
on fire. Then, one dark night, the fire-ship was sent into 
the harbor of Tripoli, with a picked crew under another 
gallant young officer, Lieutenant Richard Somers. 

They were told to take it into the midst of the 
Moorish squadron, set it on fire and escape in their 
boats. It was expected to blow up and rend to atoms 
the war vessels of Tripoli. 

But the forts and ships began to fire on it, and 
before it reached its goal a frightful disaster occurred. 
Suddenly a great jet of fire was seen to shoot up into 
the sky. Then came a roar like that of a volcano. The 
distant spectators saw the mast of the Intrepid, with 
blazing sail, flung like a rocket into the air. Bombs 
flew in all directions. Then all g-rew dark and still. 

In some way the magazine had been exploded, per- 
haps by a shot from the enemy. Nothing was ever seen 
again of Somers and his men. It was the great trag- 
edy of the war. They had all perished in that fearful 
explosion. 



D 




LofC. 







Now let us turn back to the story of Decatur, of 
whom we have some more famous work to tell. 

In August, 1804, the American fleet entered the 
harbor of Tripoli and made a daring attack on the fleet, 
the batteries, and the city of the Bashaw. In addition! 
to the war vessels of the fleet, there were six gunboats i 
and two bomb vessels, and all of these poured shot and i 
shell into the city which had so long defied them. 

The batteries on shore returned the fire and the": 
gunboats of the Bashaw advanced to the attack. On 
these the fleet now turned its fire, sweeping their decks 
with grape and canister shot. Decatur, with three gun- 
boats, advanced on the eastern division of the Moorish 
gunboats, nine in all. 

Decatur, you will see, was outnumbered three to 
one, but he did not stop for odds like that. He dashed 
boldly in, laid his vessel alongside the nearest gunboat 
of the enemy, poured in a volley, and gave the order to 
board. In an instant the Americans were over the bul- 
warks and on the foe. 

The contest was short and sharp. The captain of 
the Tripolitans fell dead. Most of his officers were 
wounded. The men, overcome by the fierce attack, 
soon threw down their arms and begged for quarter. 
Decatur secured them below decks and started for the' 
next gunboat. 

On his way he was hailed from one of his own j 
boats, which had been commanded by his brother 
James. The men told him that his brother had cap- 
tured one of the gunboats of the enemy, but, on going 
on board after her flag had fallen, he had been shot 
dead by the treacherous commander. The murderer 



¥ 



DECATUR AT TRIPOLI 



lOI 



had then driven the Americans back and carried his 
boat out of the fight. 

On hearing this sad news, Decatur was filled with 
grief and rage. Bent on revenge, he turned his boat's 
prow and swiftly sped towards the craft of the assassin. 
The instant the two boats came together the furious 
Decatur sprang upon the deck of the enemy. At his 
back came Lieutenant McDonough and nine sturdy 
sailors. Nearly forty of the Moors faced them, at their 
head a man of gigantic size, his face half covered with 
a thick black beard, a scarlet cap on his head, the true 
type of a pirate captain. 

Sure that this was his brother's murderer, Decatur 
rushed fiercely at the giant Moor. The latter thrust at 
him with a heavy boarding pike. Decatur parried the 
blow, and made a fierce stroke at the weapon, hoping to 
cut off its point. 

He failed in this and his 
cutlass broke off at the hilt, 
leaving him with empty hands. 
With a lusty yell the Moor 
thrust again. Decatur bent 
aside, so that he received only 
a slight wound. Then he 
seized the weapon, wrested 
it from the hands of the 
Moor, and thrust fiercely at 
him. 

In an instant more the 
two enemies had clinched in 
a wrestle for life and death, 
and fell struggling to the 




EEKB.IWC 






deck. While they lay there one of the Tripolitan offi- 
cers raised his scimetar and aimed a deadly blow at the 
head of Decatur. 

It seemed now as if nothing could save the strug- 
gling American. Only one of his men was near by. 
This was a sailor named Reuben James, who had been 
wounded in both arms. But he was a man of noble 
heart. He could not lift a hand to save his captain, 
but his head was free, and with a sublime devotion he 
thrust it in the way of the descending weapon. 

Down it came with a terrible blow on his head, and 
he fell bleeding to the deck, but before the Tripolitan 
could lift his weapon again to strike Decatur, a pistol 
shot laid him low. 

Decatur was left to fight it out with the giant 
Moor. With one hand the huge wrestler held him 
tightly and with the other he drew a dagger from his 
belt. The fatal moment had arrived. Decatur caught 
the Moor's wrist just as the blow was about to fall, and 
at the same instant pressed against his side a small pis- 
tol he had drawn from his pocket. 

A touch of the trigger, a sharp report, and the 
body of the giant relaxed. The bullet had pierced him 
through and he fell back dead. Flinging off the heavy 
weight, Decatur rose to his feet. 

Meanwhile his few men had been fiercely fighting 
the Tripolitan crew. Greatly as they outnumbered the 
Americans, the Moors had been driven back. They lost 
heart on seeing their leader fall and threw down their arms. 

Another gunboat was captured and then the battle 
ended. The attack on Tripoli had proved a failure and 
the fleet drew off. 



I02 



DECATUR AT TRIPOLI 

I know you will ask what became of brave Reuben 
James, who offered his life for his captain. Was he 
killed? No, I am glad to say he was not. He had an 
ugly cut, but he soon got well. 

One day Decatur asked him what reward he should 
give him for saving his life. The worthy sailor did not 
know what to say. He scratched his head and looked 
puzzled. 

"Ask him for double pay, Rube," suggested one 
of his shipmates. 

"A pocket full of dollars and shore leave," whis- 
pered another. 

"No," said the modest tar. "Just let somebody 
else hand out the hammocks to the men when they are 
piped down. That's something I don't like." 

Decatur consented ; and afterwards, when the crew 
were piped down to stow hammocks, Reuben walked 
among them as free and independent as a millionaire. 

That is all we have here to say about the Tripoli- 
tan war. The next year a treaty of peace was signed 
and Captain Bainbridge and the men of the Philadelphia 
were set free from their prison cells. 

In 1812, when war broke out with England, the 
gallant Decatur was given the command of the frigate 
United States, and with it he captured the British frigate 
Macedonian, after a hard fight. 

Poor Decatur, was shot dead in a duel in 1820, 
by a hot-headed officer whom he had offended. It was 
a sad end to a brilliant career, for the American Navy 
never had a more gallant commander. 





CHAPTER XII. 



The Gallant Old "Ironsides" and How 
She Whipped the '' Querriere." 

A FAMOUS INCIDENT OF THE WAR OF 1812. 

HEN did our country win its greatest fame upon 

the sea ? I think, when you have read the 

story of the war of 1812, you will say it was in 

that war. It is true, we did not do very well on land 

in that war ; but the glory we lost on the shore we 

made up on the sea. 

You should know that in 181 2 England was the 
greatest sea-power in the world. For years she had 
been fighting with Napoleon, and every fleet he set 
afloat was badly whipped by British ships. Is it any 
wonder that the people of that little island were proud 
of their fleets ? Is it any wonder they proudly sang — 

" Britannia needs no bulwarks, 
No towers along the steep ; 
Her march is o'er the mountain waves, 
Her home is on the deep ' ' ? 

They grew so vain of their lordship of the sea 
that they needed a lesson, and they were to get one 
from the Yankee tars. As soon as war began betweenil 
England and the United States in 18 12, a flock 01^ 
British war-hawks came flying bravely across the seas,' 
thinking they would soon gobble up the Yankee spar-^i 
rows. But long before the war was over they quil^' 
singing their proud song of " Britannia rules the 



GALLANT OLD IRONSIDES 



105 



waves," and found that what they thought was a 
Yankee sparrow was the American eagle. 

There were too many great things done on the 
ocean in this war for me to tell them all, so I will have 
to tell only the most famous. And first of all I must 
give you the story of the noble old Constitution, or, as 
she came to be called, Old Ironsides. 

The Constitution was a noble ship of the old kind. 
The royal old craft is still afloat, after more than a hun- 
dred years of service, and after all her companions have 
long since sunk in the waves or rotted away. She was 
built to fight the French in 1798. She was Commodore 
Preble's flagship in the war with the Moorish pirates. 
And she won undying fame in the war of 181 2. So 
the story,of the Constitution comes first in our list of the 
naval conquerors of that war. 

I fancy, if any of you had been living at that time, 
you would have wanted to fight the British as bad as 
the Americans then did. For the British had for years 
been taking sailors off of American ships and making 
them serve in their own men-of-war, and they had often 
insulted our officers upon the seas, and acted in a very 
insolent and overbearing way when they had the oppor- 
tunity. This made the Americans very angry and it 
was the main cause of the war. 

I must tell you some things that took place before 
the war. In 181 1 a British frigate named the Guerriere 
made herself very busy at this kind of work, sailing up 
and down our coast and carrying off American sailors 
on pretence that they were British. Just remember the 
name of the GuerriereT You will soon learn how the 
Constitution paid her for this shabby work. 







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I have also a story to tell about the Constitution in 
1811. She had to cross the Atlantic in that year, and 
stopped on some business in the harbor of Portsmouth, 
an English seaport. 

One night a British officer came on board and said 
there was an American deserter on his ship, the 
Havana, and that the Americans could have him if they 
sent for him. 

Captain Hull, of the Constitution, was then in Lon- 
don, so Lieutenant Morris, who had charge of the ship, 
sent for the man, but when his messenger got there he 
was told that the man said he was a British subject, and 
therefore he should not be given up. They were very 
sorry, and all that, but they had to take the man's word 
for it. 

Morris thought this very shabby treatment ; but 
he soon had his revenge. For that very night a British 
sailor came on board the Constitution, who said he was 
a deserter from the Havana. 

" Of what nation are you ?" he was asked. 

" I'm an American, sor," said the man, with a 
strong Irish accent. 

Lieutenant Morris sent word to the Havana that a 
deserter from his ship was on the Co7istitutio7i. But 
when an officer from the Havana came to get the 
deserter, Morris politely told him that the man said he 
was an American, and therefore he could not give him up. 
He was very sorry, he said, but really the man ought to 
know to what country he belonged. You may be inter- 
ested to learn that Lieutenant Morris was the man who 
had been first to board the Philadelphia in the harbor 
of Tripoli. 
106 



GALLANT OLD IRONSIDES 



107 



This was paying John Bull in his own coin. The 
officers in the harbor were in a great stew when they 
got this answer. They next tried to play a trick on 
the Americans. Two of their war-ships came up and 
anchored in the way of the Constitution. But Lieu- 
tenant Morris got up anchor and slipped away to a new 
berth. Then the two frigates sailed up and anchored 
in his way again. That was the way matters stood 
when Captain Hull came on board in the evening. 

When the captain was told what had taken place he 
saw that the British were trying to make trouble about 
the Irish deserter. But he was not the man to be caught 
in a hole. He loaded his guns and cleared the ship for 
action. Then he got up anchor, slipped round the 
British frigates, and put to sea. 

He had not gone far before the two frigates 
were after him. They came on under full sail, but one 
of them was slow and fell far behind, so that the other 
came up alone. 

*' If that fellow wants to fight he can have his 
chance," said Captain Hull, and he bade his men to 
make ready. 

Up came the Englishman, but when he saw the 
ports open and the guns ready to bark at him across 
the waves, and everything in shape for a good fight, he 
had a sudden change ot mind. Round he turned like 
a scared dog, and ran back as fast as he had come. 
That was a clear case of tit for tat, and tat had it. No 
doubt, the Englishman knew that he was in the wrong, 
for English seaman are not afraid to fight. 

Home from Plymouth came the Constitution and 
got herself put in shape for the war that was soon to 




CAPTAIN JAMES LAWRENCE, 
Who commanded the " Chesapeake" 
in the engagement with the "Shan- 
non." He received a mortal 
wound, and dying said, 
" Don't give up the 
ship." 




Ill III 




come. It had not long begun before she was off to sea, 
and now she had a remarkable adventure with the' 
Guerriere and some other British ships. In fact she 
made a wonderful escape from a whole squadron of war 
vessels. 

She left the Chesapeake on July 12, 181 2, and for 
five days sailed up the coast. The winds were light 
and progress was very slow. Then, on the 1 7th, the 
lookout aloft saw four war-ships sailing along close in 
to the Jersey coast. 

Two hours afterward another was seen. This 
proved to be the frigate Guerriere, and it was soon 
found that the others were British ships also. One of 
them was a great ship-of-the-line. It would have been 
madness to think of fighting such a force as this, more 
than six times as strong as the Constitution, and there 
was nothing to do but to run away. 

Then began the most famous race in American 
naval history. There was hardly a breath of wind, the 
sails hung flapping to the masts, so Captain Hull got 
out his boats and sent them ahead with a line to tow 
the ship. When the British saw this they did the same, 
and by putting all their boats to two ships they got ahead 
faster. 

I cannot tell the whole story of this race, but it 
lasted for nearly three days, from Friday afternoon till 
Monday morning. Now there was a light breeze and 
now a dead calm. Now they pulled the ships by boats and 
now by kedging. That is, an anchor was carried out a 
long way ahead and let sink, and then the men pulled 
on the line until the ship was brought up over it. Then 
108 



GALLANT OLD IRONSIDES 



109 



the anchor would be drawn up and carried and dropped 
ahead again. 

For two long days and nights the chase kept up, 
during which the Constitution was kept, by weary labor, 
just out of gunshot ahead. At 4 o'clock Sunday morn- 
ing the British ships had got on both sides of the Con- 
stitution and it looked as if she was in a tight corner. 
But Captain Hull now turned and steered out to sea, 
across the bows of the Eolus, and soon had them astern 
again. 

The same old game went on until 4 o'clock in the 
afternoon, when they saw signs of a coming squall. 
Captain Hull knew how to deal with an American 
squall, but the Englishmen did not. He kept his men 
towing until he saw the sea ruffled by the wind about a 
mile away. Then he called the boats in and in a mo- 
ment let fall all his sails. 

Looking at the British, he saw them hard at work 
furling their sails. They had let all their boats go 
adrift. But Captain Hull had not furled a sail, and the 
minute a vapor hid his ship from the enemy all his sails 
were spread to the winds and away went the Yankee 
ship in rapid flight. He had taught his foes a lesson 
in American seamanship. 

When the squall cleared away the British ships 
were far astern. But the wind fell again and all that 
night the chase kept up. Captain Hull threw water on 
his sails and made every rag of canvas draw. When 
daylight came only the top sails of the enemy could be 
seen. At 8 o'clock they gave up the chase and turned 









on their heels. Thus ended that wonderful three days' 
chase, one of the most remarkable in naval history. 

And now we come to the greatest story in the his- 
tory of the " Old Ironsides." In less than a month 
after the Guerriere had helped to chase her off the 
Jersey coast she had given that proud ship a lesson 
which the British nation did not soon forget. Here is 
the story of that famous fight, by which Captain Hull 
won high fame. 

In the early morning of August 19th, while the old 
ship was bowling along easily off the New England 
coast, a cheery cry of " Sail-ho !" came from the look- 
out at the mast-head. 

Soon a large vessel was seen from the deck. On 
went the Yankee ship with flying flag and bellying sails. 
The strange ship waited as if ready for a fight. When 
t\\Q Constitution drew near the stranger hoisted the British 
flag and began to fire her great guns. 

It was the Guerriere. When he saw the stars 
and stripes Captain Dacres said to his men : 

" That is a Yankee frigate. She will be ours in 
forty-five minutes. If you take her in fifteen I promise 
you four months' pay." 

It is never best to be too sure, as Captain Dacres 
was to find. 

The Guerriere kept on firing at a distance, but 
Captain Hull continued to take in sail and get his ship j 
in fighting trim, without firing a gun. After a time' 
Lieutenant Morris came up and said to him : 

"The British have killed two of our men. Shall 
we return their fire ?" 



GALLANT OLD IRONSIDES 



III 



" Not yet," said Captain Hull. " Wait a while." 

He waited until the ships were almost touching, 
and then he roared out : 

" Now, boys ; pour it into them !" 

Then came a roaring broadside that went splinter- 
ing through the British hull, doing more damage than 
all the Guerrieres fire. 

Now the battle was on in earnest. The two ships lay 
side by side, and for fifteen minutes the roar of cannon 
and the rattle of musketry filled the air, while cannon 
balls tore their way through solid timber and human 
flesh. 

Down came the mizzen mast of the Guerriere, cut 
through by a big iron shot. 

" Hurrah, boys !" cried Hull, swinging his hat like 
a schoolboy; "we've made a brig of her." 

The mast dragged by its ropes and brought the 
ship round, so that the next broadside from the Co7i- 
stttution raked her from stem to stern. 

The bowsprit of the Gtierriere caught fast in the 
rigging of the Constitution, and the sailors on both ships 
tried to board. But soon the winds pulled the Consti- 
tution clear, and as she forged ahead down with a crash 
came the other masts of the British ship. They had 
been cut into splinters by the Yankee guns. A few 
minutes before she had been a stately three-masted 
frigate ; now she was a helpless hulk. Not half an hour 
had passed since the Co7istitution fired her first shot, 
and already the Guerriere was a wreck, while the 
Yankee ship rode the waters as proudly as ever. 

Off in triumph went the "Old Ironsides" and 
hasty repairs to her rigging was made. Then she came 






^^^ 






CAPTAIN JACOB JONES, 

■Who commanded the " Wasp," 

which defeated and destroyed 

the British ship " Frolic " 

in a desperate battle. 







up with loaded guns. The Guerriere lay rolling like a 
log in the water, without a flag in sight. Not only her 
masts were gone, but her hull was like a sieve. It had 
more than thirty cannon-ball holes below the water- 
line. 

There was no need to fire again. Lieutenant Reed 
went off in a boat. 

" Have you surrendered ? " he asked Captain Dacllj 
res, who was looking, with a very long face, over the 
rail. 

" It would not be prudent to continue the engage- 
ment any longer," said Dacres, in gloomy tones. 

" Do you mean that you have struck your flag? ' 

"Not precisely. But I do not know that it will be 
worth while to fight any more." 

"If you cannot make up your mind I will go back 
and we will do something to help you." 

"I don't see that I can keep up the fight," said the 
dejected British captain. " I have hardly any men left 
and my ship is ready to sink." 

" What I want to know is," cried Lieutenant Read, 
" whether you are a prisoner of war or an enemy. And 
I must know without further parley." 

' If I could fight longer I would," said Captain 
Dacres. Then with faltering words he continued, "but- 
I-must-surrender." 

" Then accept from me Captain Hull's compliments. 
He wishes to know if you need the aid of a surgeon or 
surgeon's mate." 

" Have you not business enough on your own ship 
for all your doctors ?" asked Dacres. 

112 



GALLANT OLD IRONSIDES 



113 



" Oh, no ! " said Read. " We have only seven men 
wounded, and their wounds are all dressed." 
i Captain Dacres was obliged to enter Read's boat 
iand be rowed to the CoiistitiUion. He had been wounded, 
and could not climb very well, so Captain Hull helped 
him to the deck. 

" Give me your hand, Dacres," he said, " I know 
you are hurt." 

Captain Dacres offered his sword, but the Amer 
ican captain would not take It. 

" No, no," he said, " I will not take a sword from 
one who knows so well how to use it. But I'll trouble 
you for that hat." 

What did he mean by that, you ask ? Well, the 
two captains had met sometime before the war, and 
Dacres had offered to bet a hat that the Guerriere 
would whip the Constitution. Hull accepted the bet, 
and he had won. 

All day and night the boats were kept busy in car- 
rying the prisoners, well and hurt, to the Constitution. 
When daylight came again it was reported that the 
Guerriere was filling with water and ready to sink. 

She could not be saved, so she was set on fire. 
Rapidly the flames spread until they reached her mag- 
azine. Then came a fearful explosion and a black cloud 
of smoke hung over the place where the ship had floated. 
When it moved away only some floating planks were to 
be seen. The proud Guerriere would never trouble 
Yankee sailors again. 



"^ ^^^ 



^^^^^ 



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W 



AX ^ 



^^ 



CHAPTER XIII. 




A Famous Vessel Saved by a Poem. 



OLD "IRONSIDES" WINS NEW GLORY. 



0"^ LD Ironsides was a noble old ship, and a noble old 
ship was she." Come, I know you have not 
—J heard enough about this grand old ship, so let 
us go on with her story. And the first thing to tell is 
how she served another British ship as she had served 
the Guerjnere. 

Four months after Captain Hull's great victory, 
the Constitution was in another sea and had another 
captain. She had sailed south and was now off the 
coast of Brazil. And William Bainbridge had suo- 
ceeded Isaac Hull in command. 

It was almost the last day of the year. Chilly 
weather, no doubt, in Boston from which she had 
sailed ; but mid-summer warmth in those southern 
waters. It certainly felt warm enough to the men on 
deck, who were "spoiling for a fight," when the look- 
out aloft announced two sails. 

The sailors who had been lounging about the deck 
sprang up and looked eagerly across the waves, as the 
cheerful "Sail ho !" reached their ears. 

Soon they saw that one of the vessels was coming^ 
their way as fast as her sails could carry her. The 
other had sailed away on the other tack. 
114 



VESSEL SAVED BY A POEM 



115 



The vessel that was coming was the yciva, a fine 
iritish frigate. As she drew near she showed signals, 
hat is, she spread out a number of small flags each of 
hich had some meaning, and by which British ships 
Duld talk with each other. Captain Bainbridge could 
ot answer these, for he did not know what they meant, 
o he showed American signals, which the captain of 
le yava could not understand any better. 

Then, as they came nearer, they hoisted their na- 
onal flags, and both sides saw that they were enemies 
nd that a fight was on hand. 

Captain Bainbridge was not like Captain Hull. He 
id not wait till the ships were side by side, but began 
ring when the yava was half a mile away. That was 
nly wasting powder and balls, but they kept on firing 
ntil they were close at hand, and then the shots began 
D tell. 

A brave old fellow was the captain of the Constitu- 
'■on. A musket ball struck him in the thigh as he was 
acing the deck. He stopped his pacing, but would 
ot go below. Then a copper bolt went deep into his 
^g. But he had it cut out and the leg tied up, and he 
till kept on deck. He wanted to see the fight. 

Hot and fierce came the cannon balls, hurtling 
hrough sails and rigging, rending through thick tim- 
bers, and sending splinters flying right and left. Men 
ell dead and blood ran in streams, but still came the 
leralds of death. 

We must tell the same story of this fight as of the 
ight with the Guerriere. The British did not know how 
o aim their guns and the Americans did. The British 



D 



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I 



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,\\\ \\ \\jj_iif ? 



G 






had no sights on their cannon and the Americans had 
That was why, all through the war, the British lost s* 
- heavily and the Americans so little. The British shol 
went wild and the American balls flew straight to thei 
mark. 

You know what must come from that. Afte 
while off went the Java's bowsprit, as if it had beei 
chopped off with a great knife. Five minutes late 
her foremast was cut in two and came tumbling down 
Then the main topmast crashed down .from above 
Last of all, her mizzen-mast was cut short off by th( 
plunging shot, and fell over the side. The well-aimec 
American balls had cut through her great spars, as yoi 
might cut through a willow stick, and she was disman 
tied as the Guerriere had been. 

The loud "hurrahs" of the Yankee sailors prove* 
enough to call the dead to life. At any rate awoundec 
man, whom everyone thought dead, opened his eye 
and asked what they were cheering about. 
" The enemy has struck," he was told. 
The dying tar lifted himself on one arm, and wavec 
the other round his head, and gave three feeble cheers 
With the last one he fell back dead. 

But the Javas flag was not down for good. A<Ji 
the Constitution came up with all masts standing anc" 
sails set, the British flag was raised to the stump of the 
mizzen-mast. When he saw this this Bainbridge wort 
his ship to give her another broadside, and then down 
came her flag for good. She had had all the battering 
she could stand. 
Ii6 



VESSEL SAVED BY A POEM 



117 



In fact, the Constitution had lost only 34 men killed 
ind wounded, while the yava had lost 150 men. The 
Constitution was sound and whole ; the ^ava had only 
ler mainmast left and was full of yawning rents. Old 
(ronsides had a new feather in her cap. 

Like the Guerriere, the yava was hurt past help. 
X was impossible to take her home, so, on the last day 
)f 181 2, the torch was put to her ragged timbers and 
he flames took hold. Quickly they made their way 
hrough the ruined ship. About three o'clock in the 
ifternoon they reached her magazine, and with a 
nighty roar the wreck of the British ship was torn into 
ragments. To the bottom went the hull. Only the 
)roken masts and a few shattered timbers remained afloat. 

Such is war, a thing of ruin and desolation. Of 
hat gallant ship, which two days before had been 
)roudly afloat, only some smoke-stained fragments, were 
eft to tell that she had ever been on the seas, and 
leath and wounds had come to many of her men. 

After her fight with the ^ava the Constitution had 
. long, weary rest. You will remember the Bon 
■lomnie Richard, a rotten old hulk not fit for fighting, 
hough she made a very good show when the time for 
ghting came. The Constitution was much like her, so 
otten in her timbers that she had to be brought home 
nd rebuilt. 

Then she went a-sailing again, under Captain 
'harles Stewart, as good an officer as Hull and Bain- 
ridge, but it was more than two years after her last 
attle before she had another chance to show what sort 
f a fighter she was. 





It is a curious thing that some of the hardest fights 
of this war with England took place after the war was 
at an end. The treaty of peace was signed on Christ- 
mas eve, 1 8 14, but the great battle at New Orleans was] 
fought two weeks afterward. There was no ocean 
cable then to send word to the armies that all their kill- 
ing was for no good since there was nothing to fight 
about. 

It was worse still for the ships at sea. Nobody 
then had ever dreamed of a telegraph without wires to 
send word out over the waste of waters, or even of a 
telegraph with wires. Thus it was that the last battle 
of the old Co7istitution was fought nearly two months 
after the war was over. 

The good old ship was then on the other side of 
the ocean, and was sailing along near the island of 
Madeira, which lies off the coast of Africa. For a year 
she had done nothing except to take a few small prizes, 
and her stalwart crew were tired of that sort of work. 
They wanted a real big fight with plenty of glory. 

One evening Captain Stewart heard some of the 
officers talking about their bad luck, and wishing they 
could only meet with a fellow of their own size. They 
were tired of fishing for minnows when there were 
whales to be caught. 

" I can tell you this, gentlemen," said the captainj 
"You will soon get what you want. Before the surJ 
rises and sets again you will have a good old-fashioned 
fight, and it will not be with a single ship, either." 

I do not know what the officers said after the 

captain turned away. Very likely some of them 

118 



VESSEL SA VED BY A POEM 



119 



wondered how he came to be a prophet and could tell what 
was going to take place. I doubt very much whether 
they believed what he had said; 

At any rate, about i o'clock the next day, February 
20, 181 5, when the ship was gliding along before a light 
breeze, a sail was seen far away in front. An hour 
later a second sail was made out, close by the first. 
And when the Constihition got nearer it was seen that 
they were both ships-of-war. It began to look as if 
Captain Stewart was a good prophet, after all. 

It turned out that the first of these was the small 
i ritish frigate Cyane. The second was the sloop-of- 
\\ar Levant. Neither was a match by itself for the 
Constitution, but both together they thought themselves 
a very good match. 

It was 5 o'clock before the Yankee ship came up 
within gunshot. The two British ships had closed 
together so as to help one 
another, and now they all 
stripped off their extra sails, 
.'s a man takes off his coat 
i.nd vest for a fight. 

Six o'clock passed before 
the battle began. Then for 
fifteen minutes the three 

hips hurled their iron balls 

s fast as the men could load 

nd fire. By that time the 

moke was so thick that they 

lad to stop firing to find out 

/here the two fighting ships 

/ere. The Constitution now 










found herself opposite the Z^J7«?z/ and poured a broad- 
side into her hull. Then she sailed backward — a 
queer thing to do, but Captain Stewart knew how to 
move his ship stern foremost — and poured her iron 
hail into the Cyane. Next she pushed ahead again 
and pounded the Leva^tt till that lively little craft 
turned tail and ran. It had enough of the Co7istitution s 
iron dumplings to last a while. 

This was great sailing and great firing, but Captain 
Stewart was one of those seaman who know how to 
handle a ship, and his men knew how to handle their 
guns. There were never better seamen than those of 
the Old Iro7isides. 

The Levant was now out of the way, and there was 
only the Cyane to attend to. Captain Stewart attended 
to her so well that, just forty minutes after the fight 
began, her flag came down. 

Where now was the Levant! She had run out of 
the fight ; but she had a brave captain who did not like 
to desert his friend, so he turned back and came gal- 
lantly up again. 

It was a noble act, but a foolish one. This the 
British captain found out when he came once more 
under the American guns. They were much too hot | 
for him and once more he tried to run away. He did | 
not succeed this time. Captain Stewart was too much 
in love with him to let him go, and sent such warm 
love-letters after him that his flag came gliding down, 
as his comrade's had done. 

Captain Stewart had shown himself a true prophet. 
He had met, fought with, and won two ships of the 



Hi 



VESSEL SA VED BY A POEM 



121 



enemy. No doubt his officers after that were sure they 
had a prophet for a captain. 

That evening, when the two British captains were 
in the cabin of the Coiistihttion, a midshipman came 
down and asked Captain Stewart if the men could not 
have their ofrogf. 

"Why, didn't they have it?" asked the captain. 
" It was time for it before the battle began." 

" It was mixed for them, sir," said the midshipman. 
" But our old men said they didn't want any ' Dutch 
courage,' so they emptied the grog-tub into the lee 
scuppers." 

The Englishmen stared when they heard this. It 
is very likely their men had not fought without a double 
dose of grog. 

We have not finished our story yet. Like a lady's 
letter, it has a postscript. On March loth, the three 
ships were in a harbor of the Cape de Verde Islands 
and Captain Stewart was sending his prisoners ashore, 
when three large British men-of-war were seen sailing 
into the harbor. 

Stewart was nearly caught in a trap. Any one of 
these large frigates was more than a match for the 
Constitutio7i^ and here were three in a bunch. But, by 
good luck, there was a heavy fog that hid everything 
but the highest sails, so there was a chance of escape. 

Captain Stewart was not the man to be trapped 
while a chance was left. He was what we call a " wide- 
awake." There was a small chance left. He cut his 
cable, made a signal to the prize vessels to do the 
same, and in ten minutes after the first British vessel 




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**!<we»^ 



had been seen the American ship and its prizes were 
gliding swiftly away. 

On came the British ships against a stiff breeze up 
the west side of the bay. Out slipped the Yankee ships 
along the east side. Captain Stewart set no sails higher 
than his top sails, and these were hidden by the fog, 
so the British lookouts saw nothing. They did not 
dream of the fine birds that were flying away. 

Only when Stewart got his ship past the outer 
point of the harbor did he spread his upper sails to the 
breeze, and the British lookouts saw with surprise a 
cloud of canvas suddenly bursting out upon the air. 

Now began a close chase. The Constihition and 
her prizes had only about a mile the start. As quick 
as the British ships could turn they were on their track. 
But those were not the days of the great guns that can 
send huge balls six or seven miles through the air. A 
mile then was a long shot for the largest guns, and the 
Yankee cruisers had made a fair offing. 

But before they had gone far Captain Stewart saw 
that the Cyane was in danger of being taken, and sig- 
nalled for her to tack and take another course. She 
did so and sailed safely away. For three hours the 
three big frigates hotly chased the Constitution and 
Levant, but let the Cyane go. 

Captain Stewart now saw that the Levant was in 
the same danger, and he sent her a signal to tack as 
the Cyane had done. The Levant tacked and sailed 
out of the line of the chase. 

What was the surprise of the Yankee captain and 
his men when they saw all three of the big British ships 



I 



VESSEL SAVED BY A POEM 



123 



turn on their heels and set sail after the little sloop-of- 
war, letting the Constitution sail away. It was like 
three great dogs turning to chase a rabbit and letting a 
deer run free. 

The three huge monsters chased the little Levant 
back into the island port, and there for fifteen minutes 
they fired broadsides at her. The prisoners whom 
Captain Stewart had landed did the same from a bat- 
tery on shore. And yet not a shot struck her hull ; 
they were all wasted in the air. 

At length Lieutenant Bullard, who was master of 
the prize, hauled down his flag. He thought he had 
seen enough fun, and they might hurt somebody after- 
while if they kept on firing. But what was the chagrin 
of the British captains to find that all they had done 
was to take back one of their own vessels, while the 
American frigate had gone free. 

The Constitution and the Cyane got safely to the 
American shores, where their officers learned that the 
war had ceased more than three months before. But 
the country was proud of their good service and Con- 
gress gave medals of honor to Stewart and his officers. 

That was the last warlike service of the gallant 
Old Iro7isides, the most famous ship of the American 
Navy. Years passed by and her timbers rotted away, 
as they had done once before. Some of the wise heads 
in the Navy Department, men without a grain of senti- 
ment, decided that she was no longer of any use and 
should be broken up for old timber. 

But if they had no love for the good old ship, there 
were those who had, and a poet, Oliver Wendell 




THE NAVAL ARCH. 
Erected in New York to commem- 
orate AdBjiral De\vey's famous 
victory in Manila Bay, 1898. 





Holmes, came to the rescue, 
which he saved the ship : 



This is the poem by 





THE OLD IRONSIDES. 

Ay, tear her tattered ensign down ! 

Long lias it waved on high, 
And many an eye has danced to see 

That banner in the sky ; 
Beneath it rung the battle shout, 

And burst the cannon's roar ; 
The meteor of the ocean air 

Shall sweep the clouds no more ! 

Her deck, once red with heroes' blood, 

Where knelt the vanquished foe. 
When winds were hurrying o'er the flood 

And waves were white below. 
No more shall feel the victor's tread 

Or know the conquered knee ; 
The harpies of the shore shall pluck 

The eagle of the sea ! 

O ! better that her shattered hulk 

Should sink beneath the wave ; 
Her thunders shook the mighty deep, 

And there should be her grave ; 
Nail to the mast her holy flag, 

Set every threadbare sail, 
And give her to the god of storms, 

The lightning and the gale. 

There was no talk of destroying the Old Ironsides 

after that. The man that did it would have won eternal 

disgrace. She still floats, and no doubt she will float, 

as long as two of her glorious old timbers hang together 

124 



CHAPTER XIV. 

The Fight of Captain Jacob Jones. 

THE LIVELY LITTLE "WASP" AND HOW SHE STUNQ THE "FROLIC." 



N'~|o doubt most of my readers know very well what a 
wasp is and how nicely it can take care of itself. 
~ —J When I was a boy I found out more than once 
how long and sharp a sting it has, and I do not think 
many boys get through without waking up a wasp and 
wishing they had left it asleep. 

The United States has had three Wasps and one 
Hornet in its navy, and the British boys who came fool- 
ing in their way found that all of them could sting. I 
want to tell you about the time one of our Wasps met 
the British Frolic, and fought it in a great gale, when 
the ships were tossing about like chips on the ocean 
billows. 

Not long after the Constitution had her great fight 
with the Guerriere a little sloop-of-war named the Wasp 
set sail from Philadelphia to see what she could find on 
the broad seas. This vessel, you should know, had three 
masts and square sails like a ship. But she was not 
much larger than one of the sloops we see on our rivers 
to-day, so it was right to call her a sloop. For captain 
she had a bold sailor named Jacob Jones. 

The first thing the Wasp found at sea was a mighty 
gale of wind, that blew "great guns" for two days. 
The waves were so big and fierce that one of them 
carried away her bowsprit with two men on it. The 

125 













next night, after the wind had gone down a Httle, Hghts 
shone out across the waves, and when dayHght came 
Captain Jones saw over the heaving billows six large 
merchant ships. With them was a watch-dog in the 
shape of a fighting brig. 

This brig was named the Frolic. It had been sent' 
in charge of a fleet of fourteen merchantmen, but thescf 
had been scattered by the gale until only six were left. 
The Frolic was a good match for the Wasp, and seemed 
to want a fight quite as bad, for it sailed for the Ameri- 
can ship as fast as the howling wind would let it. 
And you may be sure the Wasp did not fly away. 

Captain Jones hoisted his country's flag like a man. 
He was not afraid to show his true colors. But the 
Frolic came up under the Spanish flag. When they 
got close together Captain Jones hailed, — 
" What ship is that ? " 

The only answer of the British captain was to pull 
down the Spanish flag and run up his own standard, 
stamped with the red cross of St. George. And as the 
one flag went down and the other went up, the Frolic 
fired a broadside at the Wasp. But just then the British 
ship rolled over on the side of a wave, and its balls 
went whistling upward through the air. The Yankee 
gunners were more wide-awake than that. They waited 
until their vessel rolled down on the side of a great 
billow, and then they fired, their solid shot going low, 
and tearing into the Frolic s sides. 

The fighting went that way all through the battle. 

The British gunners did not know their business and 

fired wild. The Yankees knew what they were about^ 

126 



FIGHT OF CAPTAIN JACOB JONES 



127 



and made every shot tell. They had sights on their 
ins and took aim ; the British had no sights and took 
no aim. That is why the Americans were victors in so 
many fights. 

But I do not think there was often a sea-fieht like 
this. The battle took place off Cape Hatteras, which is 
famous for its storms. The wind whistled and howled; 
fthe waves rose into foaming crests and sank into dark 
hollows ; the fighting craft rolled and pitched. As they 
rolled upward the guns pointed at the clouds. As they 
rolled downward the muzzles of the guns often dipped 
into the foam. Great masses of spray came flying over 
-the bulwarks and sweeping the decks. The weather 
and the sailors both had their blood up, and both were 
fighting for all they were worth. It was a question 
which would win, the wind or the men. 

As fast as the smoke rose the wind swept it away, 
so that the gunners had a clear view of the ships. The 
roar of the gale was half drowned by the thunder of the 
guns, and the whistle of the wind mingled with the 
scream of the balls, while the sailors shouted as they 
ran out their guns and cheered as the iron hail swept 
across the waves. 

In such frantic haste did the British handle their 
guns, that they fired three shots to the Yankees' two. 
The latter did not fire till they saw something to fire 
at. As a result, most of the British balls went whistlino- 
overhead, and pitching over the Wasp into the sea, 
while most of the Yankee balls swept the decks or bored 
into the timbers of the Frolic. 

But you must not think that the shots of the Frolic 
were all wasted, if they did go high. One of them hit 



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the maintopmast of the Wasp and cut it square off. 
Another hit the mizzen-topgallantmast and toppled it 
into the waves. In twenty minutes from the start 
" every brace and most of the rigging of the Wasp were 
shot away." The Wasp had done little harm above but 
a great deal below. 

The Frolic could have run away now if she had 
wanted to. But her captain was not of the runaway 
kind. The fire of the Wasp had covered his deck with 
blood, but he fought boldly on. 

As they fought the two ships drifted together and 
soon their sides met with a crash. Then, as they were 
swept apart by the waves, two of the Wasp's guns were 
fired into the bow ports of the Frolic and swept her gun- 
deck from end to end. Terrible was the slaughter done 
by that raking fire. 

The next minute the bowsprit of the Frolic caught 
in the rigging of the Wasp, and another torrent of balls 
was poured into the British ship. Then the Yankee 
sailors left their guns and sprang for the enemy's deck.. 
The captain wanted them to keep firing, but he coulcj 
not hold them back. 

First of them all was a brawny jerseyman namec 
Jack Lang, who took his cutlass between his teeth an( 
clambered like a cat along the bowsprit to the deck 
Others followed, and when they reached the deck o 
the Frolic they found Jack Lang standing alone anc 
looking along the blood-stained deck with staring eyes 

Only four living men were to be seen, and three o 
these were wounded. One was the Quartermaster a 
the wheel and the others were officers. Not anothei 

128 



FIGHT OF CAPTAIN JACOB JONES 



129 



nan stood on his feet, but the deck was strewn with the 
iead, whose bodies rolled about at every heave of 

|:he waves. 

i When the men came running aft the three officers 
lung down their swords to show that they had surren- 
lered, and one of them covered his face with his hands. 
[t hurt him to give up the good ship. Lieutenant Biddle, 
)f the Wasp, had to haul down the British flag. 

Never had there been more terrible slaughter. Of 
the no men on the Frolic there were not twenty alive 
and unhurt, while on the Wasp only five were dead and 
five wounded. The hull of the Frolic was full of holes 
and its masts were so cut away that in a few minutes 
they both fell. 

Thus ended one of the most famous of American 
'sea-fights. It was another lesson that helped to stop 

; the English from singing 

" Brittania rules the waves." 

But the little Wasp and her gallant crew did not 
get the good of their famous victory. While they were 
busy repairing damages a sail appeared above the far 
horizon. It came on, growing larger and larger, and 
soon it was seen to be a big man-of-war. 

The game was up with the Wasp and her prize, for 
the new ship was the Poictiers, a great seventy-four ship- 
of-the-line. She snapped up the Wasp and the Frolic 
and carried them off to the British isle of Bermuda, 
where the victors found themselves prisoners. 

A few words will finish the story of the Wasp. 
She was taken into the British navy ; but she did not 
have to fight for her foes, for she went down at sea 

9 



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without doing anything. So she was saved from the 
disgrace of fighting against her country. 

Captain Jones and his men were soon exchanged 
and Congress voted them a reward of $25,000 for their 
gallant fight, while the brave captain was given the 
command of the frigate Macedonian, which had been 
captured from the British. It was Captain Stephen 
Decatur, the hero of Tripoli, that captured her, in the 
good ship United States. 

Would you like to hear about the other Wasps ? 
There were two more of them, you know. They were 
good ships, but ill luck came to them all. The first Wasp 
did her work in the Revolution, and had to be burned 
at Philadelphia to keep her from the British when they 
took that city. The second one, as I have just told 
you, was lost at sea, and so was the third. You may 
see that bad luck came to them all. 

The third Wasp was, like the second, a sloop-of- 
war, but she was a large and heavy one. And though 
in the end she was lost at sea and followed the other 
Wasp to the bottom, she did not do so without sending 
some British messengers there in advance. 

I must tell you the story of this Wasp, and how 
she used her sting, but it must be done in few words. 

She was built at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and 
sailed on May i, 1814, her captain being Johnston 
Blakeley, her crew a set of young countrymen who 
were so unused to the sea that most of them were sea- 
sick for a week. Their average age was only twenty- 
three years, so they were little more than boys. Yet 
the most of them could hit a deer with a rifle, and they 
130 



FIGHT OF CAPTAIN JACOB JONES 



131 



soon showed they could hit a Reindeer with a cannon. 
By this I mean that near the end of June they 
came across a British brig named the Reindeer, and in 
less than twenty minutes had battered her in so Hvely 
a fashion that her flag came down and she was a prize. 

The crew of the Reindeer were trained seamen, 
but they did not know how to shoot. The Americans 
were Yankee farmer-lads, yet they shot like veteran 
gunners. I am sure you will think so when I tell you 
that the British could hardly hit the Wasp at all, though 
she was less than sixty yards away. But the Yankees 
hit the Reindeer so often that she was cut to pieces and 
her masts ready to fall. In fact, after she was captured, 
she could not be taken into port, but had to be set on 
fire and blown to pieces. 

But I must say a good word for the gallant captain 
of the Reindeer. First a musket ball hit him and went 
through the calves of both legs ; but he kept on his 
feet. Then a grape-shot — an iron ball two inches 
thick — went through both his thighs. The brave sea- 
man fell, but he rose to his feet again, drew his sword, 
and called his men to board the Wasp. He was trying 
to climb on board when a musket ball went through his 
head. " O God ! " he cried, and fell dead. 

This fight was in the English Channel, where 
Blakeley was doing what John Paul Jones had done 
years before. Two months after the sinking of the 
Reindeer the Wasp had another fight. This time there 
were three British vessels, the Ji^jon, the Castilian, and 
the Tartarus, all of them brig-sloops like the Reindeer. 

These vessels were scattered, chasing a privateer, 
and about 9 o'clock at night the Wasp came up with 



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I 





the Avon alone. They hailed each other as ships do, 
when they meet at sea. Then, when sure they were 
enemies, they began firing, as ships do also in time of 
war. 

For forty minutes the fight kept up, and then the 
Avon had enough. She was riddled as the Reindeer 
had been. But the Wasp did not take possession, for 
before a boat could be sent on board the two comrades 
of the Avon came in sio-ht. 

The Wasp, after her battle with the Avon, could 
not fight two more, so she sailed away and left them to 
attend to their consort. They could not save her ; the 
Wasp had stung too deeply for that. The water 
poured in faster than the men of all three ships could 
pump it out, and at one o'clock in the morning down 
plunged the Avon's bow in the water, up went her stern 
in the air, and with a mighty surge she sank to rise no 
more. 

But the gallant Wasp had ended her work. She 
took some more prizes, but the sea, to whose depths she 
had sent the RetJtdeer and Avon, took her also. She 
was seen in October, and that was the last that human 
eyes ever saw of her. 



& 
s 



132 



CHAPTER XV. 



Captain Lawrence Dies for the Flag. 



HIS WORD, 



DO NOT GIVE UP THE SHIP," BECOME THE FAMOUS MOTTO 
OF THE AMERICAN NAVY. 




^pJHE United States navy had its Hornet as well as 
I its Wasps. And they were well named, for they 
—J were all able to sting. The captain of the 
Hornet was a noble seaman named James Lawrence, 
who had been a midshipman in the war with Tripoli. 
In the war of 1 812 he was captain in succession of the 
Vixen, the Wasp, the Argus, and the Hornet. 

The Hornet was a sloop-of-war. I have told you 
what that means. She had three masts, and carried 
square sails like a ship, but she was called a sloop on 
account of her size. She had eighteen short guns and 
two long ones. The short guns threw thirty-two pound 
and the long ones twelve pound balls. 

Of course you have not forgotten the fight of the 
Constitution with the Java. When the Constitution 
went south to Brazil at that time the Hornet went with 
her, but they soon parted. 

In one of the harbors of Brazil Captain Lawrence 
saw a British ship as big as the Hornet. He waited 
outside for her but she would not come out. He had 
found a coward of a captain, and he locked him up in 
that harbor for two months. 

Then he got tired and left. Soon after he came 

across the Peacock, 2l British man-of-war brig. The 

133 




Peacock was as large as the Hornet and its captain was 
as full of fight as Captain Lawrence. He was the kind 
of man that. our bold Lawrence was hunting for. When 
two men feel that way a fight is usually not far off. 
That was the way now. Soon the guns were booming 
and the balls were frying. 

But the fight was over before the men had time to 
warm up. The first guns were fired at 5.25 in the after- 
noon, and at 5.39 the British flag came down ; so the 
battle lasted just fourteen minutes. Not many vic- 
tories have been won so quickly as that. 

But the Hornet acted in a very lively fashion while 
it lasted. Do you know how a hornet behaves when a 
mischievous boy throws a stone at its nest ? Well, 
that is the way our Hortiet did. Only one ball from the 
Peacock struck her and hardly any of her men were 
hurt But the Peacock was bored as full of holes as a 
pepper-box, and the water poured in faster than all 
hands could pump it out. In a very short time the un 
lucky Peacock filled and sank. So Captain Lawrence| 
had only the honor of his victory ; old ocean had swal- 
lowed up his prize. 

But if Captain Lawrence got no prize-money, he won 
great fame. He was looked on as another Hull or 
Decatur, and Congress made him captain of the frigate! 
Chesapeake. That was in one way a bad thing for the 
gallant Lawrence, for it cost him his life. In another 
way it was a good thing, for it made him one of thej 
most famous of American seamen. <^ 

I have told you the story of several victories or 
American ships. I must now tell you the story of one 
134 






LAWRENCE DIES FOR THE FLAG 



135 



defeat. But I think you will say it was a defeat as 
glorious as a victory. For eight months the little navy 
pf the young Republic had sailed on seas where British 
ships were nearly as thick as apples in an orchard. In 
that time it had not lost a ship, and had won more vic- 
tories than England had done in twenty years. Now it 
^as to meet with its first defeat. 

! When Captain Lawrence took command of the 
Chesapeake, that ship lay in the harbor of Boston. Out- 
side this harbor was the British frigate Shannon, block- 
ading the port. 

Now you must know that the American people 
had grown very proud of their" success on the sea. 
They had got to think that any little vessel could whip 
in English man-of-war. So the Bostonians grew eager 
"or the Chesapeake to meet the Shannon. They were 
mre it would be brought in as a prize, and they wanted 
;o hurrah over it. 

Poor Lawrence was as . •,:..-/■■•.•;.;].:' 

^ageras the people. He was 
ust the man they wanted, 
rhe Chesapeake had no crew, 
Dut he set himself to work 
md in two weeks he filled 
ler up with such men as he 
:ould find. 

It was a mixed team he 
jot together, the sweepings 
)f the streets. There were josiah TA.TTH^Li. 
;ome g-ood men amone them, ^^^n<5 to thh. assist?^ 
Dut more poor ones. And -^^ i'eiho ja^avE* 
;hey were all new men to 







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the ship and to the captain. They had not been trained 
to work together, and it was madness to fight a first- 
class British ship with such a crew. Some, in fact, 
were mutineers and gave him trouble before he got out 
of the harbor. 

But the Shan7wn was a crack ship with a crack i 
crew. Captain Broke had commanded her for seven i 
years and had a splendidly trained set of men. He had:- 
copied from the Americans and put sights on his guns, 
and had taught his men to fire at floating marks in the 
sea, and he had trained his topmen to use their muskets 
in the same careful way. So when Captain Lawrence 
sailed on June i, 1813, he sailed to defeat and death. 

Captain Broke sent a challenge to the Chesapeake^ 
to come out and fight him ship to ship. But Lawrence 
did not wait for his challenge. He was too eager for; 
that, and set sail with a crew who did not know their; 
work and most of whom had never seen their officer^ 
before. 

What could be expected of such mad courage as 
that ? It is one thing to be a brave man ; it is anothei 
to be a wise one. Of course you will say that Captain 
Lawrence was brave ; but no one can say he was wise 
Poor fellow, he was simply throwing away his ship anc 
his life. 

It was in the morning of June ist that the Chesa 
peake left the wharves of Boston. It was 5.50 in th 
afternoon that she met the Shannon and the battli 
began. ■ 

Both ships fired as fast as they could load, but th 
men of the Shannon were much better hands at the! 
136 



LAWRENCE DIES FOR THE FLAG 



137 



work and their balls tore the American ship in a terrible 
manner. A musket-ball struck Lawrence in the leg, 
but he would not go below. The rigging of the Chesa- 
peake was badly cut, the men at the wheel were shot, 
and in ten minutes the two ships drifted together. 

Men on each side now rushed to board the enemy's 
ship, and there was a hand-to-hand fight at the bulwarks 
of the two ships. At this moment Captain Lawrence 
was shot through the body and fell with a mortal wound. 
He was carried below. 

As he lay in great pain he noticed that the firing 
had almost censed. Calling a surgeon's mate to him, 
he said, " Tell the men to fire faster, and not give up 
the ship ; the colors shall wave while I live." 

Unfortunately, these words were spoken in the 
moment of defeat. Captain Broke, followed by a num- 
ber of his men, had sprung to the deck of the Chesa- 
peake and a desperate struggle began. The Americans 
fought stubbornly, but the fire from the trained men in 
the Shan?tons tops and the rush of British on board 
soon gave Broke and his men the victory. The daring 
Broke fell with a cut that laid open his skull, but in a 
few moments the Americans were driven below. 

The Chesapeake was taken in just fifteen minutes, 
one minute more than the Hornet had taken to capture 
the Peacock. 

The British hauled down the American flag, and 
then hoisted it again with a white flag to show their 
victory. But the sailor who did the work, by mistake 
got the white flag under the stars and stripes. 




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When the orunners in the Shannon saw the Yankee 
flag flying they fired again, and this time killed and 
wounded a number of their own men, one of them 
being an ofificer. 

The gallant Lawrence never knew that his ship 
was lost. He lived until the Shannon reached Halifax 
with her prize, but he became delirious, and kept repeat- 
ing over and over again his last order — " Don t give up 
the ship ! " 

With these words he died. With these words his 
memory has become immortal. " Don't give up the 
ship ! " is the motto of the American navy, and will not 
be forgotten while our great Republic survives. So Cap- 
tain Lawrence gained greater renown in defeat than 
most men have won in victory. 

The capture of the Chesapeake was a piece of won- 
derful good fortune for the British, to judge by the way 
they bragged of it. As Captain Pearson had been 
made a knight for losing the Serapis, so Captain Brokei 
was made a baronet for taking the Chesapeake. A 
"baronet," you must know, is a higher title than a; 
"knight," though they both use the handle of "Sir" toi 
their names. 

The work of the Shanno7i proved — so the British 

i 

historians said — that, "if the odds were anything like^ 
equal, a British frigate could always whip an American, 
and in a hand-to-hand conflict such would invariably 
be the case." 

Such things are easy to say, when one does not 

care about telling the truth. Suppose we give now 

138 



LAWRENCE DIES FOR THE FLAG 



139 



what a French historian, who believed in telling the 
truth, said of this fight, — 

" Captain Broke had commanded the Shannon for 
nearly seven years ; Captain Lawrence had commanded 
the Chesapeake for but a few days. The Shannon had 
cruised for eighteen months on the coast of America ; 
the Chesapeake was newly out of harbor. The Shannon 
had a crew long accustomed to habits of strict obed- 
ience ; the Chesapeake was manned by men who had 
just been engaged in mutiny. The Americans were 
wrong to accuse fortune on this occasion. Fortune was 
not fickle, she was merely logical." 

That is about the same as to say that the Chesa- 
peake was given away to the enemy. After that there 
were no more ships sent out of port unfit to fight 
merely to please the people. It was a lesson the people 
needed. 

The body of the brave Lawrence was laid on the 
quarter-deck of the Chesapeake wrapped in an American 
flag. It was then placed in a coffin and taken ashore, 
where it was met by a regiment of British troops and a 
band that played the * Death March in Saul." The 
sword of the dead hero lay on his coffin. In the end 
his body was buried in the cemetery of Trinity Church, 
New York. A monument stands to-day over his grave, 
and on it are the words : 

" Neither the fury of battle, the anguish of a mor- 
tal wound, nor the horrors of approaching death could 
subdue his gallant spirit. His dying words were 
' Don't give up the ship !' " 











I 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Commodore Perry Whips the British on 
Lake Erie. 

"WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND THEY ARE OURS." 

N the year 1813, when war was on between Eng- 
land and the United States, the whole northern 
part of this country was a wonderful forest. An 
ocean of trees stretched away from the seaside in Maine 
for a thousand miles to the west and ended in the broad 
prairies of the Mississippi region. 

The chief inhabitants of this grand forest were the 
moose and the deer, the wolf and the panther, the wild 
turkey and the partridge, the red Indian and the white 
hunter and trapper. It was a very different country 
from what we see to-day, for now its trees are replaced 
by busy towns and fertile fields. 

But in one way there has been no change. North 
of the forest lands spread the great lakes, the splendid 
inland seas of our northern border ; and these were then 
what they are now, vast plains of water where all the 
ships of all the nations might sail. 

Along the shores of these mighty lakes fighting 
was going on ; at Detroit on the west ; at Niagara on the 
east. Soon war-vessels began to be built and set afloat 
on the waters of the lakes. And soon after these vessels 
came together in fierce conflict. I have now to tell the 
story of a famous battle between these lake men-of-war. 1 
There was then in our navy a young man named 
140 



PERRY WHIPS THE BRITISH 



141 



Oliver Hazard Perry. He was full of the spirit of fight, 
but, while others were winning victories on the high 
seas, he was given nothing better to do than to command 
a fleet of gunboats at Newport, Rhode Island. 

Perry got very tired of this. He wanted to be 
where fighting was going on, and he kept worrying the 
Navy Department for some active work. So at last he 
was ordered to go to the lakes, with the best men he 
had, and get ready to fight the British there. Perry 
got the order on February 17, 181 3, and before night he 
and fifty of his men were on their way west in sleighs, 
for the ground was covered deep with snow. 

The sleighing was good, but the roads were bad 
and long, and it took him and his men two weeks to 
reach Sackett's Harbor, at the north end of Lake 
Ontario. From there he went to Presque Isle, on Lake 
Erie, where the fine city of Erie now stands. Then 
only the seed of a city was planted there, and the forest 
came down to the lake. 

Captain Perry did not go to sleep when he got to 
the water side. He was not one of the sleepy sort. 
He wanted vessels and he wanted them quick. The 
British had war-ships on the lake, and Perry did not 
intend to let them have it all to themselves. 

When he got to Erie he found Captain Dobbins, 
an old shipbuilder, hard at work. In the woods around 
were splendid trees, white and black oak and chestnut, 
for planking, and pine for the decks. The axe was 
busy at these giants of the forest, and so fast did the 
men work, that a tree which was waving in the forest 
when the sun rose might be cut down and hewn into 




ADMIRAL A. H. FOOTE, 
Distinguished himself as the Flag 
Officer of the " Flotilla " on the 
Mississippi River at the re- 
duction of Korts Henry and 
Donaldaon in x8t3. 





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ship-timber before the sun set. In that way Perry's 
fleet grew like magic out of the forest. 

While the ships were building, cannon and stores 
were brought from Pittsburgh by way of the Alleghany 
River and its branches. And Perry went to Niagara 
River, where he helped capture a fine brig, called the 
Caledonia, from the British. 

Captain Dobbins built two more brigs, one of 
which Perry named the Niagara. The other he called 
Lawrence, after Captain Lawrence, the story of whose 
life and death you have just read. 

Have any of you ever heard the story of the man 
who built a wagon in his barn and then found it too 
wide to go out through the door ? Perry was in the same 
trouble. His new ships were too big to get out into 
the lake. There was a bar at the mouth of the river 
with only four feet of water on it. That was not deep 
enough to float his new vessels. And he was in a hurry 
to get these in deep water, for he knew the British fleet 
would soon be down to try and destroy them. , 

How would you work to get a six-foot vessel over 
a four-foot sand bar ? Well, that doesn't matter, all 
we care for is the way Captain Perry did it. He took 
two big scows and put one on each side of the Lawrence. 
Then he filled them with water till the waves Washed 
over their decks. When they had sunk so far they were 
tied fast to the brig and the water was pumped out of 
them. As the water went out they rose and lifted the 
Lawrence between them until there were several feet of 
water below her keel Now the brig was hauled on the 
bar until she touched the bottom ; then she was lifted 



PERRY WHIPS THE BRITISH 



143 



acrain the same way. This second time took her out to 
deep water. Next the Niagara was lifted over the bar 
in the same manner. 

The next day the British, who had been taking 
things very easy, came saiHng down to destroy Perry's 
ships. But they opened their eyes wide when they saw 
them afloat on the lake. They had lost their chance by 
wasting their time. 

Perry picked up men for his vessels wherever he 
could eet them. The most of those to be had were 
landsmen. But he had his fifty good men from New- 
port and a hundred were sent him from the coast. 
Some of these had been on the Cottstitution in her great 
fight with the Guerriere. 

Early in August all was ready and he set sail. 
Early in September he was in Put-in Bay, at the west 
end of Lake Erie, and here the British came looking 
for him and his ships. 

Perry was now the commodore of a fleet of nine 
vessels, — the brigs Lawrence, Niagara and Caledonia, 
five schooners and one sloop. Captain Barclay, the 
British commander, had only six vessels, but some of 
them were larger than Perry's. They were the ships 
Detroit and Queefi Charlotte, a large brig, two schoon- 
ers and a sloop. Such were the fleets with which the 
great battle of Lake Erie was fought. 

I know you are getting tired of all this description, 
and want to get on to the fighting. You don't want to 
be kept sailing in quiet waters when there is a fine storm 
ahead. Very well, we will go on. But one has to get 
his bricks ready before he can build his house. 









CAPTAIN OLIVER H. PERRY, 

The Hero of the battle with the 

British on Lake Erie. 






Well then, on the loth of September, 1813, it 
being a fine summer day, with the sun shining brightly, 
Perry and his men sailed out from Put-in Bay and came 
in sight of the British fleet over the waters of the lake. 

What Captain Perry now did was fine. He hoisted 
a great blue flag, and when it unrolled in the wind the 
men saw on it, in white letters, the dying words of 
Captain Lawrence, " Don't give up the ship ! " Was 
not that a fine thing to do ? It must have put great 
spirit in the men, and made them feel that they would 
die like the gallant Lawrence before they would give 
up their ship. 

The men on both fleets were eager to fight, but 
the wind kept very light, and they came together slowly. 
It was near noon before they got near enough for their 
long guns to work. Then the British began to send 
balls skipping over the water, and soon after the Ameri- 
cans answered back. 

Now came the roar of battle, the flash of guns, the 
cloud of smoke that settled down and half hid every- 
thing. The Americans came on in a long line, head on 
for the British, who waited their approach. Perry's 
flag ship, the Lawrence, was near the head of the line. 
It soon plunged into the very thick of the fight with 
only two little schooners to help it. The wind may 
have been too light for the rest of the fleet to come up. 
We do not know just what kept them back, but at any 
rate, they didn't come up, and the Lawrence was left to 
fight alone. 

Never had a vessel been in a worse plight than was 
the Lawrence for the next two hours. She was half 
144 



PERRY WHIPS THE BRITISH 



145 



surrounded by the three large British vessels, the Detroit' 
the Queefi Charlotte and the brig Hunter, all pouring In 
their fire at once, while she had to fight them all. On 
the Lawrence and the two schooners there were only 
seven long guns against thirty-six which were pelting 
Perry's flag-ship from the British fleet. 

This was great odds. But overhead there floated 
the words, " Don't give up the ship," so the brave Perry 
pushed on till he was close to the Detroit, and worked 
away, for life or death, with all his guns, long and 
short. 

Oh, what a dreadful time there v/as on Perry's flag- 
ship during those sad two hours. The great guns 
roared, the thick smoke rose, the balls tore through her 
sides, sending splinters flying like sharp arrows to right 
and left. Men fell like leaves blown down by a gale. 
Blood splashed on the living and flowed over the dead. 
The surgeon's mates were kept busy carrying the 
wounded below, where the surgeon dressed their 
wounds. 

Captain Perry's little brother, a boy of only thir- 
teen years, was on the ship, and stood beside him as 
brave as himself. Two bullets went through the boy's 
hat ; then a splinter cut through his clothes ; still he 
did not flinch. Soon after he was knocked down and the 
captain grew pale with fear. But up jumped the boy 
again. It was only a flying hammock that had struck 
him. That little fellow was a true sailor boy, and had 
in him plenty of Yankee grit. 

I would not, if I could, tell you all the horrors of 
those two hours. It is not pleasant reading. The 



♦ ♦ « * 



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^ 






cannon balls even came through the vessel's sides among 
the wounded, and killed some of them where they lay. 
At the end of the fight the Lawre7ice was a mere wreck. 
Her bowsprit and masts were nearly all cut away, and 
out of more than a hundred men only fourteen were 
unhurt. There was not a gun left that could be worked. 

Most men in such a case would have pulled down 
their flag. But Oliver Perry had the spirit of Paul 
Jones, and he did not forget the words on his flag 
— " Don't give up the ship." 

During those dread two hours the Niagara, under 
Lieutenant Elliott, had kept out of the fight. Now it 
came sailing up before a freshening breeze. 

As soon as Perry saw this fresh ship he made up 
his mind what to do. He had a boat lowered with four 
men in it. His little brother leaped in after them. 
Then he stepped aboard with the flag bearing Law- 
rence's motto on his shoulder, and was rowed away to 
the Niagara. 

As soon as the British saw this little boat on the 
water, with Perry standing upright, wrapped in the flag 
he had fought for so bravely, they turned all their guns 
and fired at it. Cannon and musket balls tore the 
water round it. It looked as if nothing would save 
those devoted men from death. 

"Sit down!" cried Perry's men. "We will stop 
rowing if you don't sit down." 

So Perry sat down, and when a ball came crashing 
through the side of the boat he took off his coat and 
plugged up the hole. 
146 



PERRY WHIPS THE BRITISH 



147 



Providence favored him and his men. They 
reached the Niagara without being hurt. The British 
had fired in vain. Perry sprang on board and ordered 
the men to raise the flag. 

" How goes the day ?" asked Lieutenant Elhott. 

"Bad enough," said Perry. "Why are the gun- 
boats so far back ? " 

" I will bring them up," said Elliott. 

" Do so," said Perry. 

Elliott jumped into the boat which Perry had just 
left and rowed away. Up to the mast-head went the 
great blue banner with the motto, "Don't give up the 
ship." Signals were given for all the vessels to close in 
on the enemy, and the Niagara bore down under full 
sail. 

The Lawrence was out of the fight. Rent and 
torn, with only a handful of her crew on their feet, and 
not a gun that could be fired, her day was done. Her 
flag was pulled down to save themselves by the few men 
left. The British had no time to take possession, for 
the Niagara was on them, fresh for the fray, like a 
new horse in the race. 

Right through the British fleet this new ship went. 
Three of their ships were on one side of her and two 
on the other, and all only a few yards away. As she 
went her guns spoke out, sweeping their decks and 
tearing through their timbers. 

The Lawrence had done her share of work on these 
vessels, and this new pounding was more than they 
could stand. The other American vessels also were 
pouring their shot into the foe. Flesh and blood could 
not bear this. Men were falling like grass before the 




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I i 



scythe. A man sprang up on the rail of the Detroit 
and waved a white flag to show that they had surren- 
dered. The great fight was over. The British had 
given up. 

Perry announced his victory in words that have 
become historic : " We have met the enemy and they 
are ours." 

This famous despatch was written with a pencil on 
the back of an old letter, with his hat for a table. It 
was sent to General Harrison, who commanded an 
army near by. Harrison at once led his cheering sol- 
diers against the enemy, and gave them one of the 
worst defeats of the war. 

When the news of the victory spread over the 
country the people were wild v/ith joy. Congress 
thanked Perry and voted gold medals to him and 
Elliott, and honors or rewards to all the officers and 
men. But over the whole country it was thought that 
Elliott had earned disgrace instead of a gold medal by 
keeping so long out of the fight. He said he haionly 
obeyed orders, but people thought that was a time to 
break orders. 

Perry was made a full captain by Congress. This 
was then the highest rank in the navy. But he took 
no more part in the war. Six years later he was sent 
with a squadron to South America, and there he took 
the yellow fever and died. Thus passed away one of 
the most brilliant and most famous officers of the 
American navy. 






•<3! 



14S 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Commodore Porter Gains Qlory in the 

Pacific. 

THE GALLANT FIQHT OF THE "ESSEX" AGAINST GREAT ODDS. 

A"^NY of you who have read much of American his 
tory must have often met with the names of 
^— J Porter and Farragut. There are no greater 
names in our naval history. There was Captain David 
Porter and his two gallant sons, all men of fame. And 
the still more famous Admiral Farragut began his 
career under the brave old captain of the war of 1812. 

I am going now to tell you about David Porter 
and the little Essex, a ship whose name the British did 
not like to hear. And I have spoken of Farragut from 
the fact that he began his naval career under Captain 
Porter. 

Captain Porter was born in 1780, before the Revolu- 
tion had ended. His father was a sea-captain, and when 
the boy was sixteen years old he stood by his father's 
side on the schooner Eliza and helped to fight off a 
British press-gang which wanted to rob it of some of its 
sailors. Several men were killed and wounded, and the 
press-gang thought it best to let the Eliza alone. 

When the lad was seventeen he was twice seized by 
press-men and taken to serve in the British navy, but 
both times he escaped. Then he joined the American 
navy as a midshipman. 

Young Porter soon showed what was in him. In 
the naval war with France he was put on a French 
149 10 





prize that was full of prisoners, who wanted to seize the 
ship. For three days Porter helped to watch them and 
in all that time he did not take a minute's sleep. 

Afterward in a pilot-boat with fifteen men the boy 
hero fought a French privateer with forty men and a 
barge with thirty men. Porter with his brave fifteen 
boarded the privateer and fought like heroes. After 
more than half its crew were killed and wounded the 
privateer surrendered. In this hard fight not one of 
Porter's men was hurt. 

That was only one of the things which young 
Porter did. When the war with the pirates of Tripoli 
began he was there and again did some daring deeds. 
He was on the Philadelphia when that good ship ran 
aground and was taken by the Moors, and he was held 
a prisoner till the end of the war. 

Here you have an outline of the early history of 
David Porter. When the war of 1812 broke out he 
was made captain of the Essex. The Essex ^2.% a little 
frigate that had been built in the Revolution. It was 
not fit to fight with the larger British frigates, but with 
David Porter on its quarter-deck it was sure to make 
its mark. 

On the Essex with him was a fine little midship- 
man, only eleven years old, who had been brought up 
in the Porter family. His name was David G. Farra- 
gut. I shall have a good story to tell you of him 
later on, for he grew up to be one of the bravest and 
boldest men in the American navy. 

On July 2, 181 2, only two weeks after war was de- 
clared. Porter was off to sea in the Essex, on the hunt 
150 



PORTER IN THE PACIFIC 



151 



: for prizes and glory. He got some prizes, but it was 
\ more than a month before he had a chance for glory 

Then he came in sight of a British man-of-war, a sight 

that pleased him very much 

Up came the Essex, pretending to be a merchant 

ship and with the British flag flying. That is one of 

the tricks which naval officers play. They think it 

right to cheat an enemy. The stranger came bowling 

down under full sail and fired a gun as a hint for the 

supposed merchantman to stop. So the Essex backed 

her sails and hove to until the stranger had passed her 

stern. 

Porter was now where he had wanted to get. He 

had the advantage of the wind — what sailors call the 

" weather-gage." So down came the British flag and 

up went the Stars and Stripes, and the ports were 

thrown open showing the iron mouths of the guns, 

readv to bark. 

When the English 

sailors saw this they cheered 

loudly and ran to their guns. 

They fired in their usual 

hasty fashion, making much 

noise, but doing no harm. 

Porter waited till he was 

ready to do good work, and 

then fired a broadside that 

fairly staggered the British 

ship. 

The Englishmen had 

not bargained for such a 

salute as this, and now tried 




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to run away. But the Essex had the wind and in eight 
minutes was alongside. And in those eight minutes her 
guns were busy as guns could be. Then down came the 
British flag. That was the shortest fight in the war. 

The prize was found to be the corvette Alert. A 
corvette is a little ship with not many guns. She was not 
nearly strong enough for the Essex, and gave up when 
only three of her men were wounded. But she had 
been shot so full of holes that she already had seven 
feet of water in her hold and was in danger of sinking. 
It kept the men of the Essex busy enough to pump her 
out and stop up the holes, so that she should not go to 
the bottom. Captain Porter did not want to lose his 
prize. He came near losing it, and his ship too, in 
another way, as I have soon to tell. 

You must remember that he had taken other prizes 
and sent them home with some of his men. So he had 
a large number of prisoners, some of them soldiers taken 
from one of his prizes. There were many more British 
on board than there were Americans, and some of them 
formed a plot to capture the ship. They might have 
done it, too, only for the little midshipman, David 
Farragut. 

This little chap was lying in his hammock, when 
he saw an Englishman come along with a pistol in his 
hand. This was the leader in the plot who was looking 
around to see if all was ready for his men to break out 
on the Americans. 

He came up to the hammock where the boy lay 
and looked in at him. The bright young fellow then 
had his eyes tight shut and seemed to be fast asleep. 
152 



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PORTER IN THE PACIFIC 



153 



After looking a minute the man went away. The 
instant he was out of sight up jumped the lad and ran 
to the captain's cabin. You may be sure he did not 
take many words to tell what he had seen. 

Captain Porter knew there was no time to be lost. 
He sprang out of bed in haste and ran to the deck. 
Here he gave a loud yell of " Fire ! Fire ! " 

In a minute the men came tumbling up from be- 
low like so many rats. They had been trained what to 
do in case of a night-fire and every man ran to his place. 
Captain Porter had even built fires that sent up 
volumes of smoke, so as to make them quick to act and 
to steady their nerves. 

While the cry of fire roused the Americans, it 
scared the conspirators, and before they could get back 
their wits the sailors were on them. It did not take 
long to lock them up again. In that way Porter and 
Farragut saved their ship. 

The time was cominor in which he would lose his 
ship, but the way he lost it brought him new fame. I 
must tell you how this came about. When the Constitu- 
tion and t\\.Q Hornet, as I have told you in another story, 
were in the waters of Brazil, the Essex was sent to join 
them. You know what was done there, how the Con- 
stitution whipped and sunk the yava and the Hornet did 
the same for the Peacock. 

There was no such luck for the Essex, and after 
his consorts had gone north Captain Porter went cruis- 
ing on his own account. In the Pacific ocean there were 
dozens of British whalers and other ships. Here was a 
fine field for prizes. So he set sail, went round the 




^^\^ 







I 



stormy Cape Horn in a hurricane, and was soon in the 
great ocean of the west. 

I shall not tell you the whole story of this cruise. 
The Essex here was like a hawk among a flock of par- 
tridges. She took prize after prize until she had about 
a dozen valuable ships. 

When the news of what Porter was doing reached 
England there was a sort of panic. Something must 
be done with this fellow or he would clear the Pacific of 
British trade. So a number of frigates were set in the 
hunt for him. They were to get him in any way they 
could. 

After a long cruise on the broad Pacific, the Essex 
reached the port of Valparaiso, on the coast of Chili 
in South America. She had with her one of her prizes, 
the Essex Junior. Here Porter heard that a British 
frigate, the Phoebe, was looking for him. That pleased 
him. He wanted to come across a British war-vessel, 
so he concluded to wait for her. He was anxious for 
something more lively than chasing whaling ships. 

He was not there long before the Phoebe came, and 
with her a small war-ship, the Cherub. 

When the Phoebe came in siorht of the Essex it sailed 
close up. Its captain had been told that half the Amer- 
ican crew were ashore, and very likely full of Spanish 
wine. But when he orot near he saw the Yankee sailors 
at their guns and ready to fight. When he saw this he 
changed his mind. He jumped on a gun and said : — 

"Captain Hillyar's compliments to Captain Porter, . 
and hopes he is well." 

" Very well, I thank you," said Porter. " But I hope 
you will not come too near for fear some accident 

154 



PORTER IN THE PACIFIC 



155 



might take place which would be disagreeable to you." 

" I had no intention of coming on board," said 
Captain Hillyar, when he saw the look of things on the 
deck of the Essex. " I am sorry I came so near you." 

" Well, you have no business where you are," said 
Porter. " If you touch a rope yarn of this ship, I shall 
board instantly." 

With that the Phcebe wore round and went off. It 
was a neutral port and there was a good excuse for not 
fighting, but it was well for Porter that he was ready. 

A few days later he heard that some other British 
ships were coming to Valparaiso and he concluded to 
put to sea. He didn't want to fight a whole fleet. But 
the wind treated him badly. As he sailed out a squall 
struck the Essex and knocked her maintopmast into the 
sea. Porter now ran into a small bay near at hand and 
dropped anchor close to the shore. 

Here was the chance for the Phoebe and the 
Cherub. They could stand off and hammer the Essex 
where she could not fire back. They had over thirty 
long guns while the Essex had only six, and only three 
of these could be used. The rest of her guns were 
short ones that would not send a ball far enough to 
reach the British ships. 

The Essex was in a trap. The British began to pour 
solid iron into her at the rate of nearly ten pounds to 
her one. For two hours this was kept up. There was 
frightful slaughter on the Essex. Her men were falling 
like dead leaves but Porter would not yield. 

After this went on for some time there came a 
change in the wind, and the Essex spread what sail she 




THE HERO OF MANILA BAY, 

Who found hi« opportunity for fame 

in destroying the Spanish Fleet 

in the Philippine Islands, 

May I, S8g8. 










had and tried to get nearer. But the Phcebe would not 
wait for her, but sailed away and kept pumping balls 
into her. 

Soon the wind changed again. Now all hope was 
gone. The American crew was being murdered and 
could not get near the British. Porter tried to run his 
ship ashore, intending to fight to the last and then blow 
her up. 

But the treacherous wind shifted again and he 
could not even reach the shore. Dead and wounded 
men lay everywhere. Flames were rising in the hold. 
Water was pouring into shot holes. The good ship 
had fought her last and it was madness to go on. So 
at 6. 20 o'clock, two and a half hours after the fight be- 
gan, her flag came down and the battle was over. 

The story of the cruise of the Essex and her great 
struggle against odds was written for us by her young 
midshipman — David Farragut. President Roosevelt, 
in his Naval History of the War of 181 2, says the fol- 
lowing true words about Captain Porter's brave fight : 

"As an exhibition of dogged courage it has never 
been surpassed since the time when the Dutch Captain 
Keasoon, after fighting two long days,blew up his disabled 
ship, devoting himself and all his crew to death, rather 
than surrender to the hereditary foes of his race." Por- 
ter was the man to do the same thing, but he felt he 
had no right to send all his men to death. 



156 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Commodore MacDonough's Victory on 
Lake Champlain. 

HOW GENERAL PREVOST AND THE BRITISH RAN AWAY. 

mHE United States is a country rich in lakes. They 
might be named by the thousands. But out of 
this host of lakes very few are known in history, 
and of them all much the most famous is Lake Cham- 
plain. 

Do you wish to know why ? Well, because this 
lake forms a natural waterway from Canada down into 
the States. If you look on a map you will see that 
Lake Champlain and Lake George stretch down nearly 
to the Hudson River and that their waters flow north 
into the great St. Lawrence River. So these lakes 
make the easiest way to send troops down from Canada 
into New York and New England. 

Now just let us take a look back in history. Why, 
the very first battle in the north of our country was 
fought on Lake Champlain. This was in 1609, when 
Samuel de Champlain and his Indian friends came down 
this lake in canoes to fight with the Iroquois tribes of 
New York. 

Then in 1756 the French and Indians did the same 
thing. They came in a fleet of boats and canoes and 
fought the English on Lake George. Twenty years 
afterward there was the fierce fight which General 

157 













Arnold made on this lake, of which I have told you. 
Later on General Burgoyne came down Lakes Cham- 
plain and George with a great army. He never went 
back again, for he and his army were taken prisoners 
by the brave Colonials. But the last and greatest of all 
the battles on the lakes was that of 1814. It is of this 
I am now about to tell you. 

You should know that the British again tried what 
they had done when they sent Burgoyne down the 
lakes. This time it was Sir George Prevost who was 
sent with an army of more than 1 1,000 men to conquer 
New York. He didn't do it any more than Burgoyne 
did, for Lieutenant Thomas Macdonough was in the 
way. I am going to tell you how the gallant Mac- 
donough stopped him. 

Macdonough was a young man, as Perry was. He 
had served, as a boy, in the war with Tripoli. In 1806, 
when he was only twenty years old, he gave a Yankee 
lesson to a British captain who wanted to carry off an 
American sailor. 

This was at Gibraltar, where British guns were 
thick as blackbirds, but the young lieutenant took the 
man out of the English boat and then dared the captain 
to try and take him back again. The captain blustered, 
but he did not try, in spite of all his guns. 

In 1 81 3 Macdonough was sent to take care of 
things on Lake Champlain. No better man could have 
been sent. He did what Perry had done; he set him- 
self to build ships and get guns and powder and shot 
and prepare for war. The British were building ships, 
too, for they wanted to be masters of the lake before 
158 



MACDONOUGH'S VICTORY 



159 



they sent their army down. So the sounds of the axe 
and saw and hammer came before the sound of cannon 
on the lake. 

Macdonough did not let the grass grow under his 
feet. When he heard that the British were building a 
big frigate, he set to work to build a brig. The keel 
was laid on July 29th, and she was launched on August 
i6th — only eighteen days! There must have been 
some lively jumping about in the wildwood's shipyard 
just then. 

The young commander had no time to waste, for 
the British were coming. The great war in Europe 
with Napoleon was over and England had plenty of 
ships and men to spare. A flock of her white-winged 
frigates came sailing over the ocean and swarmed like 
bees along our coast. And an army of the men who 
had fought against Napoleon was sent to Canada to 
invade New York. It was thought the Yankees could 
not stand long before veterans like these. 

Down marched the British army and down sailed 
the British fleet. But Macdonough was not caught 
napping. He was ready for the British ships when 
they came. 

And now, before the battle begins, let us give a 
few names and figures, for these are things you must 
know. The Americans had four vessels and ten gun- 
boats. The vessels were the ship Sa7^2itoga, the brig 
Eagle, the schooner Ticonderoga, and the sloop Preble. 
The British had the frigate Co7ijiance, larger than 
any of the American ships, the brig Liniiet, the sloops 
Chubb and Finch^ and thirteen gunboats. And the 
British were best off for guns and men, though the 







£3S^ 




REAR ADMIRAL JOHN A, B. 
DAHLGREN, 

The inventor of the gun to fir« 
shells. He distinguished him- 
self during Civil 'War. 






difference was not great. Such were the two fleets that 
came together on a bright Sunday on September ii, 
1 8 14, to see which should be master of Lake Champ- 
lain. 

The American ships were drawn up across Platts- 
burg Bay, and up this bay came the British fleet to 
attack them, just as Carleton's vessels had come up to 
attack Arnold forty years before. 

At Plattsburg was the British army, and opposite, 
across Saranac River, lay a much smaller force of 
American regulars and militia. They could easily see 
the ships, but they were too busy for that, for the 
soldiers were fighting on land while the sailors were 
fighting on water. Bad work that for a sunny Septem- 
ber Sunday, wasn't it ? 

Macdonough had stretched his ships in a line 
across the bay, and had anchors down at bow and stern, 
with ropes tied to the anchor chains so that the ships 
could be swung round easily. Remember that, for that 
won him the battle. 

It was still early in the day when the British came 
sailing up, firing as soon as they came near enough. 
These first shots did no harm, but they did a comical 
thing. One of them struck a hen-coop on the Sara- 
toga, in which one of the sailors kept a fighting cock. 
The coop was knocked to pieces, and into the rigging 
flew the brave cock, flapping his wings at the British 
vessels and crowing defiance to them, while the sailors 
lauofhed and cheered. 

But the battle did not fairly begin until the great 
frigate Confiance came up and dropped anchor a few 

160 



MACDONOUGH'S VICTORY 



i6i 



hundred yards from the Saratoga. Then she blazed 
away with all the guns on that side of her deck. 

This was a terrible broadside, the worst any 
American ship had felt in the whole war. Every shot 
hit the Saratoga and tore through her timbers, sending 
splinters flying like hail. So frightful was the shock 
that nearly half the crew were thrown to the deck. 
About forty of them did not get up again ; they were 
either killed or wounded. A few broadsides like that 
would have ended the fight, for it would have left the 
Saratoga without men. 

On both sides now the cannon roared and the 
shots flew, but the British guns were the best and the 
Americans had the worst of it. The commodore was 
knocked down twice. The last time he was hit with the 
head of a man that had been shot off and came whirl- 
ing through the air. 

" The commodore is killed !" cried the men ; but in 
a trice he was up again, and aiming and firing one of his 
own guns. 

This dreadful work went on for two hours. All 
that time the two biggest British vessels were pelting 
the Saratoga, and the other American ships were not 
helping her much. Red-hot shot were fired, which set 
her on fire more than once. 

At the end Macdonough had not a single gun left 
to fire back. It looked as if all was up with the Ameri- 
cans, all of whose ships were being battered by the 
enemy. But Commodore Macdonough knew what he 
was about. He now cut loose his stern anchor and bade 
his men pull on the rope that led to the bow anchor. 



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In a minute the ship began to swing round. Soon she) 
had a new side turned to the foe. Not a gun had been 
fired on this side. 

When the British captain saw what the Americansj 
were at he tried the same thing. But it did not work] 
as well with him. The Conjiance began to swing round,: 
but when she got her stern turned to the Americans she! 
stuck fast. Pull and haul as they might, the sailors] 
could not move her another inch round. 

Here was a splendid chance for the men on the] 
Saratoga. They poured their broadsides into the stern] 
of the Conjiance and raked her from end to end, while] 
her position was a helpless one. The men fled from, 
the guns. The ship was being torn into splinters. No! 
hope for her was left. She could not fire a gun. Her 
captain was dead, but her lieutenant saw that all was] 
over, and down came her flag. 

Then the Saratoga turned on the brig Linnet andj 
served her in the same fashion. 

That ended the battle. The two sloops had sur- 
rendered before, the gunboats were driven away by the! 
Ttco7tderoga, and the hard fight was done. Once morel 
the Americans were victors. Perry had won one lake.] 
Macdonough had won another. 

And that was not the whole of it. For as soon asl 
the American soldiers saw the British flag down and the! 
stars and stripes still afloat, they set up a shout that] 
rang back from the Vermont hills. 

Sir George Prevost, though he had an army of vet- 
erans twice as strong as the American army of militia,] 
broke camp and sneaked away under cover of a storm. 

162 



CHAPTER XIX. 



Four Naval Heroes in One Chapter. 

FIGHTS WITH THE PIRATES OF THE GULF AND THE CORSAIRS OF THE 
MEDITERRANEAN. 



W'He have so far been reading the story of legal war- 
fare ; now let us turn to that of the wild warfare 
-J of the pirate ships. Pirates swarmed during and 
after the war of 1812 and the United States had its 
hands full in dealing with them. They haunted the 
Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, and they went 
back to their old bad work in the Mediterranean. They 
kept our naval leaders busy enough for a number of 
years. 

The first we shall speak of are the Lafittes, the 
famous sea-rovers of the Gulf of Mexico. Those men 
had their hiding places in the low-lands of Louisiana, 
where there are reedy streams and grassy islands by 
the hundreds, winding in and out in a regular network. 
From these lurking places the pirate ships would dash 
out to capture vessels and then hurry back to their 
haunts. 

The Lafittes (Jean and Pierre) had a whole fleet 
of pirate ships, and were so daring that they walked the 
streets of New Orleans as if that city belonged to them, 
and boldly sold their stolen goods in its marts, and 
nobody meddled with them. 

But the time came when they were attacked in 
their haunts and the whole gang was broken up. This 
was near the end of the war, when the government had 

163 



O 



v^^ 









some ships to spare. After that they helped General 
Jackson in the celebrated battle of New Orleans and 
fought so well that they were forgiven and were thanked 
for their services. 

When the war of 1812 was over many of the pri- 
vateers became pirates. A privateer, you know, is 
something like a pirate. He robs one nation, while a 
pirate robs all. So hundreds of those men became 
sea-robbers. 

After 18 14 the seas of the West Indies were full of 
pirates. There was no end of hiding places among the 
thousand islands of these seas, where the pirates could 
bring their prizes and enjoy their wild revels. The 
warm airs, the ripe fruits and wild game of those shores 
made life easy and pleasant, and prizes were plenty on 
the seas. 

When the war ended the United States gained a 
fine trade with the West Indies. But many of the 
ships that sailed there did not come home again, though 
there were no hurricanes to sink them. And some that 
did come home had been chased by ships that spread 
the rovers' black flag. So it was plain enough that 
pirates were at work. 

For years they had it their own way, with no one 
to trouble them. The government for years let them 
alone. But in time they grew so daring that in 18 19 
a squadron of war ships 'was sent after them, under 
Commodore Perry, the hero of Lake Erie. Poor Perry, 
he caught the yellow fever and died, and his ships 
came home without doing anything. 

After that the pirates were let alone for two years. 

Now-a-days they would not have been let alone for two 

164 



\ 



FOUR NA VAL HEROES 



165 



weeks, but things went slower then. No doubt the 
merchants who sent cargoes to sea complained of the 
[dreadful doings of the pirates, but the government did 
not trouble itself much, and the sea-robbers had their 
own way until 1821. 

By that time it was felt that something must be 
done and a small fleet of pirate hunters was sent to the 
West Indies. It included the famous sloop-of-war Hor- 
net, the one which had fought the Peacock, and the brig 
Ente7'prise, which Decatur had been captain of in the 
Moorish war. 

The pirates were brave enough when they had 
only merchant ships to deal with, but they acted like 
:owards when they found warships on their track. 
They fled in all directions and many of their ships and 
barges were taken. After that they kept quiet for a 
jtime, but soon they were at their old work again. 

In 1823 .Captain David Porter, he who had fought 
i)0 well in the Essex, was sent against them. The brave 
young Farragut was with him. He brought a number 
3f barges and small vessels, so that he could follow the 
sea-robbers into their hiding-places. 

One of these places was found at Cape Cruz, on 
jPorto Rico. Here the pirate captain and his men 
rought like tigers, and the captain's wife stood by his 
>ide and fought as fiercely as he did. After the fight 
vvas over the sailors found a number of caves used by 
:he pirates. In some of them were great bales of goods 
ind in others heaps of human bones. All this told a 
ireadful story of robbery and murder. 

Another fight took place at a haunt of pirates on 
:he coast of Cuba, where Lieutenant Allen, a navy 





officer, had been killed the year before in an attack on 
the sea-robbers. 

Here there were over seventy pirates and only 
thirty-one Americans. But the sailors cried " Remem- 
ber Allen ! " and dashed so fiercely at the pirate vessels, 
that the cowardly crews jumped overboard and tried to 
swim ashore. But the hot-blooded sailors rowed in 
among them and cut fiercely with their cutlasses, so that 
hardly any of them escaped. Their leader, who was 
named Diabolito or " Little Devil," was one of the 
killed. 

In this way the pirate hordes were broken up, after 
they had robbed and murdered among the beautiful 
West India islands for many years. After that defeat 
they gave no more trouble. 

Among the pirates was Jean Lafitte, one of the 
Lafitte brothers, of whose doings you have read above. 
After the battle of New Orleans he went to Texas, and 
in time became a pirate captain again. As late as 
1822 his name was the terror of the Gulf. Then he 
disappeared and no one knew what had became of him. 
He may have died in battle or have gone down in 
storm. 

But the pirates of the West Indies and the Gulf 
were not the only ones the United States had to deal 
with. You have read the story of the Moorish corsairs 
and of the fighting at Tripoli. Now I have something 
more to tell about them, for when they heard that the 
United States was at war with England they tried their 
old tricks again, capturing American sailors and selling 
them for slaves. 

]66 



FOUR NA VAL HEROES 



167 



They had their own way until the war was over. 
Then two squadrons of war vessels were sent to the 
Mediterranean, one under Commodore Bainbridge, who 
had commanded the Constihttioii when she fought the 
Java, and the other under Commodore Decatur, the 
gallant sailor who had burned the Philadelphia in the 
harbor of Tripoli. 

Decatur got there first, and it did not take him 
long to bring the Moors to their senses. The trouble 
this time was with Algiers, not with Tripoli. Algiers 
was one of the strongest of the Moorish states, 

On the 15th of June, 18 15, Decatur came in sight 
of the most powerful of the Algerine ships, a forty-six 
gun frigate, the Mashouda. Its commander was Rais 
Hammida, a fierce and daring fellow, who was called " the 
terror of the Mediterranean." He had risen from the 
lowest to the highest place in the navy, and had often 
thown his valor in battle. 
But his time for defeat had 
now come. 

When the Moorish ad- 
miral found himself amid a 
whole squadron of American 
war ships he set sail with 
all speed and made a wild 
dash for Algiers. But he 
had faster ships in his track 
and was soon headed off. 

The bold fellow had 

no chance at all, with half-a- 

' dozen great ships around 

I him, but he made a fine fight 





TWX. S'VIUE.TTO 





for his life. He did not save either his ship or his life, 
for a cannon ball cut him squarely in two, and when his 
lieutenant tried to run away he came across the brig 
Epervier, which soon settled him. But the Mashottda 
had made a good fight against big odds, and deserved 
praise. 

After that another Algerian ship was taken, and 
then Decatur sailed for Algiers. When he made signals 
the captain of the port came out. A black-bearded 
high and mighty fellow he was. 

"Where is your navy?" asked Decatur. 

"It's all right," said the Algerian, "safe in some 
friendly port." 

" Not all of it, I fancy," said Decatur. " I have 
your frigate Mashouda and your brig Estido, and your 
admiral Hammida is killed." 

" I don't believe it," said the Algerian. 

" I can easily prove it," said Decatur, and he sent 
for the first lieutenant of the Mashouda. 

When the captain of the port saw him and heard 
his story he changed his tone. His haughty manner 
passed away, and he begged that fighting should cease 
until a treaty could be made on shore. 

" Fighting will not cease until I have the treaty," 
said Decatur, sternly ; " and a treaty will not be made 
anywhere but on board my ship." 

And so it was. The captain of the port came out 
next day with authority to make a treaty. But the cap- 
tain did not want to return the property taken from the 
American ships, saying that it had been scattered among 
many hands. 

i68 



N/ 



FOUR NA VAL HEROES 



169 



" I can't help that. It must be returned or paid 
for," said Decatur. 

Then the captain did not want to pay $10,000 for 
a vessel that had been captured, and he wanted tribute 
from the United States. He told Decatur what a 
great man his master, "Omar the Terrible," was, and 
asked for a three hours' truce. 

" Not a minute," said Decatur. " If your ships 
appear before the treaty is signed by the Dey, and the 
American prisoners are on board my ship, I shall cap- 
ture every one of them." 

The only concession Decatur would make was to 
promise to return the Mashouda. But this was to be 
taken as a gift from the Americans to the Dey, and as 
such it must not appear in the treaty. The Algerian, 
finding that all his eloquence was wasted on the un- 
yielding Yankee, hurried ashore with the treaty, arrang- 
ing to display a white flag in case of its being signed. 

An hour after he left an Algerian man-of-war was 
seen out to sea, and the American vessels got ready for 
action. But before anything was done the captain of 
the port came out with a white flag. He brought the 
treaty and the prisoners. That ended the trouble with 
Algiers. When the ten freed captives reached the deck 
some knelt down and gave thanks to God, while others 
hastened to kiss the American flag. 

Then Decatur sailed to Tunis and Tripoli and 
made their rulers come to terms. From that day to 
this no American ship has been troubled by the corsairs 
of Barbary. 






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CHAPTER XX. 

Commodore Perry Opens Japan to the 

World. 

A HEROIC DEED WITHOUT BLOODSHED. 

HERE are victories of peace as well as of war. Of 
course, you do not need to be told that. Every- 
body knows it. And it often takes as much 
courage to win these victories as it does those of war. 
I am going now to tell you of one of the greatest vic- 
tories ever won by an American naval hero, and with- 
out firing a gun. 

Not far away from the great empire of China lies 
the island empire of Japan. Here the map shows us 
three or four large islands, but there are many hundreds 
of small ones, and in and out among them flow the 
smiling blue waters of the great Pacific ocean. 

The people of Japan, like the people of China, for 
a long time did not like foreigners and did not want 
anything to do with them. But that was the fault of 
the foreigners themselves. For at first these people 
were glad to have strangers come among them, and 
treated them kindly, and let missionaries land and try 
to make Christians of them. But the Christian teachers 
were not wise, for they interfered with the government 
as well as with the faith of the people. 

• The Japanese soon grew angry at this. In the end 
they drove all the strangers away and killed all the 
Christian converts they could find. Then laws were 
170 



PERRY OPENS JAPAN 



171 



made to keep all foreigners out of the country. They 
let a Dutch ship come once a year to bring some foreign 
goods to the seaport of Nagasaki, but they treated these 
Dutch traders as if they were of no account. And thus 
it continued in Japan for nearly three hundred years. 

The Japanese did not care much for the Dutch 
goods, but they liked to hear, now and then, what was 
going on in the world. Once a year they let some of 
the Dutch visit the capital, but these had to crawl up to 
the emperor on their hands and knees and crawl out 
backward like crabs. They must have wanted the 
Japanese trade badly to do that. 

When a vessel happened to be wrecked on the 
coast of Japan the sailors were held as prisoners and 
there was much trouble to get them off, and when Jap- 
anese were wrecked and sent home no thanks were 
given. They were looked upon as no longer Japanese. 

The Russians had seaports in Siberia, which made 
them near neighbors to Japan, so they tried to make 
friends with the Japanese. But the island people would 
have nothing to do with them. Captain Golownin, of 
the Russian navy, landed on one of the islands ; but he 
was taken prisoner and kept for a long time and treated 
cruelly. That was the way things went in Japan till 
1850 had come and passed. 

It took the Yankees to do what the Dutch and the 
Russians had failed in doing. After the war with Mex- 
ico, thousands of Americans went to California and 
other parts of the Pacific coast and trading ships grew 
numerous on that great ocean. It was felt to be time 
that Japan should be made to open her ports to the 




19 J.. 



f^^^^\J 





commerce of the nations, and the United States triec 
to do it. 

Captain Matthew Calbraith Perry was selected foi 
this great work. Captain Perry was a brother of Olivei 
H. Perry, the hero of Lake Erie. He was a lieutenant 
in that war, but he commanded a ship in the war witl 
the pirates and the Mexican war. In 1852 he was givei 
the command of a commodore and sent out with a fin( 
squadron to Japan. He took with him a letter froi 
the President to the Tycoon or military ruler of JapanJ 

On the 8th of July, 1853, the eyes of many of the 
Japanese opened wide when they saw four fine vessels 
sailing grandly up the broad Bay of Yeddo, where such] 
a sight had never been seen before. As late as i85( 
the ruler of Japan had sent word to foreign nations 
that he would have nothing to do with them or theii 
people, and now here come these daring ships. 

These ships were the steam frigates Mississippi 2S\( 
Susquehanna^ and the sailing ships Saratoga and Ply\ 
mouth of the United States Navy, under command of 
Commodore Perry 

Have you ever disturbed an ant-hill, and seen the 
ants come running out in great haste to learn what was 
wrong? It was much like that on the Bay of YeddcJ 
Thousands of Japanese gathered on the shores 01 
rowed out on the bay to gaze at this strange sightJ 
The great steamships, gliding on without sails, were 
wonderful spectacle to them. 

As the ships came on, boats put out with flags ane 

carrying men who wore two swords. This meant that 

they were of high station. They wanted to climb intc 

172 



PERR Y OPENS JAPAN 



173 



the ships and order the daring commodore to turn 
around and go back, but none of them were allowed to 
set foot on board. 

" Our commodore is a great dignitary," they were 
told. " He cannot meet small folk like you. He will 
only speak with one of your great men, who is his 
equal." 

And so the ropes which were fastened to the ships 
were cut and those who tried to climb on board were 
driven back, and these two-sworded people had to row 
away as they had come. 

This made them think that the American commo- 
dore must be a very big man indeed. So a more im- 
portant man came out ; but he was stopped too, and 
asked his business. He showed an order for the ships ^JT 
to leave the harbor at once, but was told that they had \ 
come there on business and would not leave till their 
business was done. 

After some more talk they let this man come on 
board, but a lieutenant was sent to talk with him as his 
equal in rank. He said he was the vice-governor of the 
district, and that the law of Japan forbade foreigners to 
come to any port but that of Nagasaki, where the Dutch 
traders came. 

The lieutenant replied that such talk was not re- 
spectful, that they had come with a letter from the 
President of the United States to the Emperor of 
Japan, and that they would deliver it where they were 
and nowhere else. And it would be given only to a 
prince of the highest rank. 

Then he was told that the armed boats that were 
gathering about the ship must go away. If they did 




ADMIRAL DAVID PORTER, 
The hero of the Mississippi, who 
assisted at the capture of Vicks- 
burg and opened the Mississ- 
ippi river to navigation 
in the Civil AVar. 









not they would be driven away with cannon. When 
the vice-governor heard this he ordered the boats away, 
and soon followed them himself. He was told that if 
the governor did not receive the letter the ships would 
go up the bay to Yeddo, the capital, and send it up to 
the emperor in his palace. 

The next day the governor of the district came. 
Two captains were sent to talk with him. He did not 
want to receive the letter either, and tried everyway he 
could to avoid taking it. After some talk he asked if he 
might have four days to send and get permission of the 
Tycoon, whe was the acting but not the real emperor 
of Japan. 

"No," he was told. "Three days will be plenty 
of time, for Yeddo is not far off. If the answer does 
not come then, we will steam up to the city, and our 
commodore will go to the Emperor's palace for the 
answer." 

The governor was frightened at this, so he agreed 
upon the three days and went ashore. 

During those three days the ships were not idle. 
They sent parties in boats to survey the bay. All 
along the shores were villages full of people, and fish- 
ing boats and trading vessels were on the waters by 
hundreds. There were forts on shore, but they were 
poor affairs, with a few little cannon, and soldiers car- 
rying spears. And canvas was stretched from tree to 
tree as if it would keep back cannon-balls. The sailors 
laughed when they saw this. 

The governor said that they ought not to survey 
the waters ; it was against the laws of Japan. But they 
kept at it all the same. The boats went ten miles up 
174 •'} 



PERRY OPENS JAPAN 



175 



the bay, and the Mississippi steamed after them. Gov- 
ernment boats came out and signs were made for them 
to go back ; but they paid no attention to these signs. 

When the three days were ended the good news 
came that the Emperor would receive the letter. He 
would send one of his high officers for it. An answer 
would be returned through the Dutch or the Chinese. 
Commodore Perry said this was an insult, and he would 
not take an answer from them, but would come back 
for it himself. 

So on the 14th of July the President's letter was 
received. It was written in the most beautiful manner, 
on the finest paper, and was in a golden box of a thou- 
sand dollars in value. It asked for a treaty of commerce 
between the two countries, and for kind treatment of 
American sailors. 

So far none of the Japanese had seen the Commo- 
dore, and they thought he must be a very great man. 
Now he went ashore with much dignity, with several 
hundred officers and men, and with bands playing and 
cannon roaring. There were two princes of the empire 
to receive him, splendidly dressed in embroidered robes 
of silk. 

The Commodore was carried in a fine sedan-chair, 
beside which walked two gigantic negroes, dressed in 
gorgeous uniform and armed with swords and pistols. 
Two other large, handsome negroes carried the golden 
letter case. 

A beautiful scarlet box was brought by the Japanese 
to receive this. It was put in the box with much cere- 
mony, and a receipt was given. Then the interpreter 
said : 






■a 









" Nothing more can be done now. The letter has 
been received and you must leave." 

" I shall come back for the answer," said Com- 
modore Perry. 

" With all the ships ? " 

" Yes, and likely with more." 

Not another word was said, and the Commodore 
rose and returned to the ship. The next day he sailed 
up the bay until only eight or ten miles from the capi- 
tal. On the 1 6th, the Japanese officials were glad to 
see the foreign ships, with their proud Commodore, 
sailing away. The visit had caused them great anxiety 
and trouble of mind. 

Commodore Perry did not come back till February 
of the next year. Then he had a larger fleet, nine ships 
in all. And he went farther up the bay than before 
and anchored opposite the village of Yokohama. This 
village has now grown into a large city. 

The Emperor's answer was ready, but there was 
much ceremony before it was delivered. There were 
several receptions, and at one of these the presents 
which Commodore Perry had brought were delivered. 
These were fine cloths, firearms, plows, and various 
other articles. The most valuable were a small locomo- 
tive and railroad car. These were run in a circular 
track that was set up, and the Japanese looked on with 
wonder. Also a telegraph wire was set up and oper- 
ated. This interested the Japanese more than anything 
else, but they took care not to show any surprise. 

In the Emperor's reply he agreed that the Ameri- 
can ships should be supplied with provisions and water, 
176 



PERRY OPENS JAPAN 



177 



and that shipwrecked sailors should be kindly treated. 
And he also agreed to open to American ships another 
port besides that of Nagasaki, where the Dutch were 
received. The Commodore was not satisfied with this, 
and finally two new ports were opened to American 
commerce. And the Americans were given much more 
freedom to go about than was given to the Dutch or 
Chinese. They refused to be treated like slaves. 

When it was all settled and the treaties were 
exchanged. Commodore Perry gave an elegant dinner 
on his flagship to the Japanese princes and officials. 
They enjoyed the American food greatly, but what 
they liked most was champagne wine, which they had 
never tasted before. One little Japanese got so merry 
with drinking this, that he sprang up and embraced the 
Commodore like a brother. Perry bore this with great 
good-humor. 

But just think of the 
importance of all this! For 
three centuries the empire 
of Japan had been shut like 
a locked box aofainst the na- 
tions. Now the box was 
unlocked, and the people of 
the nations were free to 
come and go. For treaties 
were soon made with other 
countries, and the island 
empire was thrown open 
to the commerce of the 
world. 






<<y 




m 



Captain Ingraham Teaches Austria a 
Lesson. 

OUR NAVY UPHOLDS THE RIGHTS OF AN AMERICAN IN A FOREIGN LAND. 

"m jlow I have a story to tell you about how this coun- 
|\j try looks after its citizens abroad. It is not i 
a long story, but it is a good one, and Ameri- 
cans have been proud of Captain Ingraham ever since 
his gallant act. 

In 1848 there was a great rebellion in Hungary 
against Austria. Some terrible fighting took place and 
then it was put down with much cruelty and slaughter. 
The Austrian government tried to seize all the leaders 
of the Hungarian patriots and put them to death, but 
several of them escaped to Turkey and took refuge in 
the city of Smyrna. Among these was the celebrated 
Louis Kossuth, and another named Koszta. 

Austria asked Turkey to give these men up, but , 
the Sultan of Turkey refused to do so. Soon after that I 
Koszta came to the United States, and there in 1852 he 
took the first step towards becoming an American 
citizen. He was sure that the United States would take , 
care of its citizens. And he found out that it would. 1 

The next year he had to go back to Smyrna on I 
some business. That was not a safe place for him. 
The Austrians hated him as they did all the Hungarian 
patriots. They did not ask Turkey again to give him 
up, but there was an Austrian war-ship, the Huzzar, in 
the harbor, and a plot was made to seize Koszta and take 
178 



CAPTAIN INGRAM AM AND AUSTRIA 



179 



him on board this ship. Then he could easily be carried 
to Austria and put to death as a rebel. 

One day, while Koszta was sitting quietly in the 
Marina, a public place in Smyrna, he was seized by a 
number of Greeks, who had been hired to do so by the 
Austrian consul. They bound him with ropes and 
carried him on board the Huzzar. 

It looked bad now for poor Koszta, for he was in 
the hands of his enemies. It is said that the Archduke 
John, brother of the Emperor of Austria, was captain 
of the ship. By his orders iron fetters were riveted on 
the ankles and wrists of Koszta and he was locked up 
in the ship like one who had committed a great crime. 

But a piece of great good fortune for the prisoner 
happened, for the next day the St. Louis, an American 
sloop-of-war, came sailing into the harbor. Captain 
Duncan N. Ingraham, who had been a midshipman in 
the war of 181 2, was in command. 

He was just the man to be there. He was soon 
told what had taken place, and that the prisoner claimed 
to be an American, and he at once sent an officer to the 
Huzzar and asked if he could see Koszta. He was 
told that he might do so. 

Captain Ingraham went to the Austrian ship and 
had an interview with the prisoner, who told him his 
story, and said that he had taken the first step to 
become a citizen of the United States. He begged the 
captain to protect him. 

Captain Ingraham was satisfied that Koszta had a 
just claim to the protection of the American flag, and 
asked the Austrians to release him. They refused to do 



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so, and he then wrote to Mr. Brown, the American con- 
sul at Constantinople and asked him what he should do. 
Before he could get an answer a squadron of Aus- 
trian war-ships, six in number, came gliding into the 
harbor, and dropped anchor near the Huzzar. It looked 
worse than ever now for poor Koszta, for what could 
the little St. Louis do against seven big ships ? But 
Captain Ingraham did not let that trouble him. In 
his mind right was stronger than might, and he was 
ready to fight ten to one for the honor of his flag. 

While he was waiting for an answer from Consul 
Brown he saw that the Huzzar was getting ready to 
leave the harbor. Her anchor was drawn up and her 
sails were set. Ingraham made up his mind that if the 
Htizzar left, it would have to be over the wreck of the 
St. Louis. He spread his sails in a hurry and drove his 
sloop-of-war right in the track of the Austrian ship. Then 
he gave orders to his men to make ready for a fight. 

When Archduke John saw the gun-ports of the St. 
Louis open he brought his ship to a stand-still and 
Captain Ingraham went on board. 

" What do you intend to do ? " he asked. 

" To sail for home," said the Austrian. " Our 
consul orders us to take our prisoner to Austria." 

"You must pardon me," said Captain Ingraham, 
" but if you try to leave this port with that American 
I shall be compelled to resort to extreme measures." 

That was a polite way of saying that Koszta should 
not be taken away if he could prevent it. 

The Austrian looked at the six ships of his nation 
that lay near him. Then he looked at the one Ameri- 
can ship. Then a pleasant smile came on his face. 



i8o 



J 



CAPTAIN IN GRAHAM AND AUSTRIA 



i8i 



" J fear I shall have to go on, whether it is to your 
liking or not," he said in a very polite tone. 

Captain Ingraham made no answer. He bowed to 
the Archduke and then descended into his boat and re- 
turned to the St. Loziis. 

" Clear the ship for action ! " he ordered. The tars 
sprang to their stations, the ports were opened, and the 
guns thrust out. There was many a grim face behind 
them. 

The Archduke stared when he saw these black- 
mouthed guns. He was in the wrong and he knew it. 
And he saw that the American meant business. He 
could soon settle the little St. Louis with his seven 
ships. But the great United States was behind that 
one ship, and war might be behind all that. 

So the Archduke took the wisest course, turned 
his ship about, and sailed back. Then he sent word 
to Inorraham that he would wait till Consul Brown's 
answer came. 

The Consul's reply came on July ist. It said that 
Captain Ingraham had done just right, and advised 
him to go on and stand for the honor of his country. 

The daring American now took a bold step. He 
sent a note to the Archduke demanding the release of 
Koszta. And he said that if the prisoner was not sent 
on board the St. Louis by four o'clock the next afternoon, 
he would take him from the Austrians by force of arms. 

A refusal came back from ,the Austrian ship. 
They would not give up their prisoner, they said. Now 
it looked like war indeed. Captain Ingraham waited 
till eight o'clock the next morning and then he had his 





decks cleared for action and brought his guns to bear 
on the Huzzar. The seven Austrian ships turned their 
guns on the St Louis. The train was laid ; a spark 
might set it off. 

At ten o'clock an Austrian officer came on board 
the St. Louis. He began to talk round the subject. 
Ingraham would not listen to him. It must be one 
thing or nothing. 

" All I will agree to is to have the man given into 
the care of the French consul at Smyrna till you can 
hear from your government," he said. ** But he must 
be delivered there or I will take him. I have stated the 
time at four o'clock this afternoon." 

The Austrian went back. When twelve o'clock 
came a boat left the Huzzar and was rowed in shore. 
An hour later the French consul sent word to Captain 
Ingraham that Koszta had been put under his charge. 
Captain Ingraham had won. Soon after several of the 
Austrian ships got under way and left the harbor. They 
had tried to scare Captain Ingraham by a show of force, 
but it did not work worth a cent. 

When news of the event reached the United States 
everybody cheered the spirit of Captain Ingraham. He 
had given Europe a new idea of what the rights of an 
American citizen meant. The diplomats now took up 
the case and long letters passed between Vienna and 
Washington. But in the end Austria acknowledged 
that the United States was right, and sent an apology. 

As for Koszta, the American flag gave him life 
and liberty. Since then American citizenship has been 
respected everywhere. 
182 



f 



CHAPTER XXII. 

The "Monitor" and the " Merrimac." 

A FIGHT WHICH CHANGED ALL NAVAL WARFARE. 

mHE Story I am now going to tell you takes us for- 
ward to the beginning of the great Civil War, 
that terrible conflict which went on during four 
long years between the people of the North and the 
South. Most of this war was on land, but there were 
some mighty battles at sea, and my story is of one of 
the greatest of these. 

You should know that up to i860 all ocean battles 
were fought by ships with wooden sides, through which 
a ball from a great gun would often cut as easily as a 
knife through a piece of cheese. Some vessels had been 
built with iron overcoats, but none of these had met in 
war. It was not till March, 1862, that the first battle 
between ships with iron sides took place. 

The Constitution, you may remember was called 
the Old Ironsides, but that was only a nickname, for she 
had wooden sides, and the first real Ironsides were the 
Monitor and the Merrimac. 

Down in Virginia there is a great body of salt 
water known as Hampton Roads. The James River 
runs into it, and so does the Elizabeth River, a small 
stream which flows past the city of Norfolk. 

Norfolk was an old city where there was a fine 
United States navy yard, with ships and guns and docks 
that had cost a great deal of money. But soon after 

183 



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MA^ 



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the war began the officers in charge there ran away in 
a fright, after they had set on fire everything that would 
burn. 

Among the ships there was the old frigate Merri- 
mac, which was being repaired. This was set on fire 
and blazed away merrily, until it sank to the bottom 
and the salt water put out the blaze. That was a very 
bad business, for there was enough left of the old 
Merrimac to make a great deal of trouble for the 
United States. 

What did the Confederates do but lift the Merrimac 
out of the mud, and put her in the dry dock, and cut 
away the burnt part, and build over her a sloping roof 
of timbers two feet thick, until she looked something 
like Noah's ark. Then this was covered with iron 
plates four inches thick. In that way the first Confed- 
erate iron-clad ship was made. 

The people at Washington knew all about this ship 
and were very much alarmed. No one could tell what 
dreadful damage it might do if it got out to sea, and 
came up Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River to the 
national capital. It might be much worse than when 
the British burnt Washington in 1814, for Washington 
was now a larger and finer city. 

Something had to be done, and right away, too. 
It would not do to wait for a monster like the Merri- 
mac. So captain John Ericsson, a famous engineer of 
New York, was ordered to build an iron ship-of-war as 
fast as he could. And he started to do so after a queer 
notion of his own. 

That is the way it came about that the two iron 
ships were being built at once, one at Norfolk and one 
184 



THE MONITOR AND THE MERRIMAC 



185 



at New York. And there was a race between the 
builders, for the first one finished would have the best 
chance. There was a lively rattle of hammers and 
tongs at both places, and it turned out that they were 
finished and ready for service only a few days apart. 

I have had to tell you all this so that you might 
know how the great fight came to be fought and how 
Washington was saved from the iron dragon of the 
South. Now we are done with our story of ship-build- 
ing and must go on to the story of battle and ruin. 

On the morning of March 8, 1862, the sun came 
up beautifully over the broad waters of Hampton 
Roads. The bright sunbeams lit up the sails of a row 
of stately vessels stretched out for miles over the smil- 
ing bay. There were five of these, the steam frigates 
St. Lawrence^ Roanoke, and Minnesoia, the sailing frig- 
ate Congress, and the sloop-of-war Citmksrland. They 
were all wooden ships, but were some of the best men- 
of-war in the United States navy. 

All was still and quiet that fine morning. There 
was nothing to show that there was any trouble on 
board those noble ships. But there was trouble 
enough, for their captains knew that the Merrimac was 
finished and might come at any hour. Very likely some 
of the officers thought that they could soon decide mat- 
ters for this clumsy iron monster. But I fancy some of 
them did not sleep well and had bad dreams when they 
thought of what might happen. 

Just at the hour of noon the lookout on the Cum- 
berland saw a long black line of smoke coming from the 
way of Norfolk. Soon three steamers were seen. One 




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of these did not look like a ship at all, but like a low- 
black box, from which the smoke puffed up in a thick 
cloud. 

But they knew very well what this odd-looking 
craft was. It was the Merrimac. It had come out for 
a trial trip. But it was a new kind of trial its men were 
after, the trial by battle. 

Down came the iron-clad ship, with her sloping 
roof black in the sun-light. Past the Congress she 
went, both ships firing. But the great guns of the 
Congress did no more harm than so many pea-shooters, 
while the shot of the Merrmiac went clear through the 
wooden ships, leaving death in their track. 

Then the iron monster headed for the Cumberland. 
That was a terrible hour for the men on the neat little 
sloop-of-war. They worked for their lives, loading and 
firing and firing as fast as they could, but not a shot 
went through that grim iron wall. 

In a few minutes the Merrimac came gliding up 
and struck the Cumberla^id 3. frigfhtful blow with her iron 
nose, tearing through the thick oaken timbers and 
making a great hole in her side. Then she backed off 
and the water rushed in. 

In a minute the good ship began to sink, while the 
Merrimac poured shot and shell into her wounded 
ribs. 

" Do you surrender ! " asked one of the ofificers 
the Merrijnac. 

"Never!" said Lieutenant Morris, who co 
manded the Cumberland. " I'll sink alongside befor 
I pull down that fiag." 
186 




THE MONITOR AND THE MERRIMAC 



187 



He was a true Yankee seaman ; one of the " no 
surrender" kind. 

Down, inch by inch, settled the doomed ship. But 
her men stuck grimly to their guns, and fired their last 
shot just as she sank out of sight. Then all who had 
not saved themselves in the boats leaped overboard 
and swam ashore, but a great many of the dead and 
wounded went down with the ship. 

She sank like a true Yankee hero, with her flag 
flying, and when she struck bottom, with only the tops 
of her masts above water, " Old Glory " still fluttered 
proudly in the breeze. 

That was the way it went when iron first met wood 
in naval warfare. The victor now turned to the Congress 
and another fierce battle began. But the wooden ship 
had no chance. For an hour her men fought bravely, 
but her great guns were of no use and a white flag was 
raised. She had surrendered, but the Confederates 
could not take possession, for there were batteries on 
shore that drove them off. So they fired hot shot into 
the Congress and soon she was in a blaze. 

It was now five o'clock in the afternoon and the 
Merrimac steamed away with the Confederate flag fly- 
ing in triumph. She had finished her work for that 
day. It was a famous trial trip. She would come back 
the next and sink the vessels still afloat — if nothing 
hindered. 

For hours that night the Congress blazed like a 
mighty torch, the flames lighting up the water and land 
for miles around. It was after midnig^ht when the fire 
reached her magazine and she blew up with a terrific 
noise, scattering her timbers far and near. 




John Ericsson 

THE fAMQUS CONSTROCMfi:, 
OF THX. M.ONrrOR_. ♦ • ♦ 
His invention revolutionized the con- 
struction of warships. Hevvrasborn 
in Sweden in 1830, and died in 
America in 1880. 




ill III 






The men on the Merrimac looked proudly at the 
burning ship. It was a great triumph for them. But 
they saw one thing by her light they did not like so 
well. Off towards Fortress Monroe there lay in the 
water a strange-looking thing, which had not been 
there an hour before. What queer low ship was that ? 
And where had it come from ? 

The sun rose on the morning of Sunday, March 
9th, and an hour later the Merrimac was again under 
way to finish her work. Not far from where the 
Congress had burnt lay the Mi7inesota. She had run 
aground and looked like an easy prey. But close 
beside her was the floating thing they had observed the 
night before, the queerest-looking craft that had ever 
been seen. 

Everybody opened their eyes wide and stared as at 
a show when they saw this strange object. They called 
it ** a cheese box on a raft," and that is a good deal what 
it looked like. For the deck was nearly on a level with 
the water, and over its centre rose something like a 
round iron box. But it had two great guns sticking out 
of its toueh sides. 

It was the Moniior, the new vessel which Captain 
Ericsson had built and sent down to fight the Menn- 
mac. But none who saw this little low thing thought it 
could stand lone before the grreat Confederate iron-clad. 
It looked a little like a slim tiger or leopard before 
a great rhinoceros or elephant. The men on the 
Merrimac did not seem to think it worth minding, for 
they came steaming up and began firing at the Minne- 
sota when they were a mile away. 
188 



THE MONITOR AND THE MERRIMAC 



189 



Then away from the side of the great frigate 
glided the little Monitor, heading straight for her 
clumsy antagonist. She looked like no more than a 
mouthful for the big ship, and men gazed at her with 
dread. She seemed going straight to destruction. 

But the brave fellows on the Monitor had no such 
thoughts as that. 

" Let her have it," said Captain Worden when they 
came near, and one of the great eleven-inch guns 
boomed like a volcano. The huge iron ball, weighing 
about 175 pounds, struck the plates of the Merriinac 
with a thundering crash, splitting and splintering them 
before it bounded off. The broadside of the Merrimac 
boomed back, but the balls glanced away from the 
thick round sides of the turret and did no harm. 

Then the turret was whirled round like a top, and 
the gun on the other side came round and was fired. 
Again the Merrimac fired back and the great battle 
was on. 

For two hours the iron ships fought like two mighty 
wrestlers of the seas. Smoke filled the turret so that 
the men of the Monitor did not know how to aim their 
guns. The Merri77iac could fire three times to her one, 
but not a ball took effect. It was like a battle in a cloud. 

" Why are you not firing?" asked Lieutenant Jones 
of a gun captain. 

"Why, powder is getting scarce," he replied, "and 
I find I can do that wiffet as much harm by snapping 
my finger and thumb every three minutes." 

Then Lieutenant Jones tried to sink the Monitor. 
Five times the great iron monster came rushing up upon 







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the little Yankee craft, but each time it glided easily 
away. But when the Merrimac came up the sixth time 
Captain Worden did not try to escape. The Mojiitor 
waited for the blow. Up rushed the Merrimac at full 
speed and struck her a fierce blow. But the iron armor 
did not give way, and the great ship rode up on the 
little one's deck till she was lifted several feet. 

The little Monitor sank down under the Merrimac 
till the water washed across her deck ; then she slid 
lightly out and rose up all right again, while the Merri- 
mac started a leak in its own bow. At the same moment 
one of the Monitor s great guns was fired and the ball 
struck the Mei^rimac, breaking the iron plates and 
bulging in the thick wood backing. 

Thus for hour after hour the fight went on. For 
six hours the iron ships struggled and fought, but 
neither ship was much the worse, while nobody was 
badly hurt. 

This is the way the end of the fight came. There 
was a little pilot-house on the deck of the Monitor, with 
a slot in its side from which Captain Worden watched 
what was going on; so he could give orders to his 
men. Up against this there came a shell that filled the 
face and eyes of the captain with grains of powder and 
splinters of iron, and flung him down blind and helpless. 
Blood poured from every pore of his face. 

The same shot knocked an iron plate from the top 
of the pilot-house and let in the daylight in a flood. 
When the light came pouring in Captain Worden, with 
his blinded eyes, thought something very serious had 
happened, and gave orders for the Monitor to draw off 
to see what damage was done. 
190 



THE MONITOR AND THE MERRIMAC 



191 



Before she came back the Merrimac was far away. 
She was leaking badly and her officers thought it about 
time to steam away for home. 

That was the end of the great battle. Neither side 
had won the victory, but it was a famous fight for all 
that. For it was the first battle of iron-clad ships in 
the history of the world. Since then no great warship 
has been built without iron sides: Only small vessels 
are now made all of wood. 

That was the first and last battle of the Monitor 
and the Merrimac. For a long time they watched each 
other like two bull-dogs ready for a fight. But neither 
came to blows. Then, two months after the great battle, 
the Merrimac was set on fire and blown up. The Union 
forces were getting near Norfolk and her officers were 
afraid she would be taken, so they did what the Union 
officers had done before. 

The Monitor had done her work well, but her time 
also soon came. Ten months after the great battle she 
was sent out to sea, and there she went to the bottom 
in a gale. Such was the fate of the pioneer iron-clads. 
But they had fought a mighty fight, and had taught the 
nations of the world a lesson they would not soon 
forget. 

In that grim deed between the first two ironclad 
ships a revolution took place in naval war. The great 
frigates, with their long rows of guns, were soon to be 
of little more use than floating logs. Forty years have 
passed since then, and now all the great war vessels are 
clad in armor of the hardest steel. 




4'- 



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Te««e.sse£. 




The " Hartford " was the flagship of 

Admiral Farragut in Mobile Bay. 

The "Tennessee" was the 

powerfully built armored 

infed 





CHAPTER XXIII. 



Commodore Farragut Wins Renown. 

THE HERO OF MOBILE BAY LASHES HIMSELF TO THE MAST. 




A"^N old friend of ours is David G. Farragut. We 
met him, you may remember, years ago, on the 
I old Essex, under Captain Porter, when he was a 
boy of only about ten years of age. Young as he was 
he did good work on that fine ship during her cruise in 
the Pacific and her last great fight. 

When the civil war began Farragut had got to be 
quite an old boy. He was sixty years of age and a 
captain in the navy. He had been born in the South 
and now lived in Virginia, and the Confederates very 
much wanted him to fight on their side. 

" Not after fighting fifty years for the old flag," he 
said. "And mind what I tell you; you fellows will catch 
much more than you want before you get through with 
this business." 

And so Farragut reported for duty under the old 
flag. 

Very soon the ships of the government were busy 
all along the coast, blockading ports and chasing block- 
ade runners, and fighting wherever they saw a chance. 

There was one such chance, a big one, away down 
South. For there was the large city of New Orleans, 
which the British had tried to take nearly fifty years 
before ; and there was the Mississippi River that led 

192 



FARRAGUT WINS RENOWN 



193 



straight to it. But strong forts had been built along 
that river and armed boats were on its waters, and the 
Yankees of the North might find it as hard to get there 
as the British did. 

Now I have to speak of another brave man and 
good seaman, David D. Porter. He was a son of the 
captain of the old Essex, and a lifelong friend of David 
G. Farragut. 

Porter was sent down to help blockade the Miss- 
issippi in the summer of 1861, and while there he found 
out all about the forts and the ships on the river. Then 
he went to Washington and told the Secretary of the 
Navy all he had learned, and asked him to send down 
a fleet to try and capture the city. 

" Where can I find the right man for a big job like 
that?" asked the Secretary. 

"Captain Farragut is your man," said Porter. "You 
have him now on committee work, where a man like 
him is just wasted, for you have not half as good a sea- 
man on any of your ships." 

And in that way the gallant Farragut was chosen 
to command the fleet to be sent to capture the great 
city of the South. Porter, you see, did not ask for a 
command for himself, but for his friend. 

When the fleet was got ready it numbered nearly 
twenty vessels, but most of them were gunboats, and 
none of them were very large. The Mississippi was 
not the place for very large ships. Farragut chose the 
sloop-of-war Hartford for his flagship and sailed merrily 
.away for the mighty river. He did not forget his friend 
Porter. For twenty mortar boats were added to the 
fleet and Porter was given command of these. 



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A mortar, you should know, is a kind of a short 
cannon made to throw large shells or balls. It is pointed 
upward so as to throw them high up into the air and 
then let them fall straight down on a fort. Porter's 
mortar boats were schooners that carried cannons of 
this kind. 

When Farragut got his fleet in the river, he made 
ready for the great fight before him. Of course, he 
had no ironclads, for the Monitor had just fought its 
great battle and no other ironclads had been built. So 
he stretched iron chains up and down the sides of his 
ships to stop cannon balls. Then bags of coal and sand 
were piled round the boilers and engines to keep them 
safe, and nets were hung to catch flying splinters, which 
are often worse than bullets in a fight at sea. 

But the most interesting thing done was to the mor- 
tar boats. These were to be anchored down the stream 
below the forts, and limbs of trees full of green leaves 
were tied on their masts, so they could not be told from 
the trees on the river bank. As they went up the river 
they looked like a green grove afloat. 

Now let us take a look at what the Confederates 
were doing. They were not asleep, you may be sure. 
They had built two strong forts, one on each side of 
the river, just where it made a sharp bend. One of 
these was named Fort Jackson and the other Fort St. 
Philip. There were more than a hundred cannon in 
these forts, but most of them were small ones. 

They had also stretched iron cables across the 
river, with rafts and small vessels to hold them. up. 
This was to stop the fleet from going up the river and 
194 



FA RR A GUT WINS RENOWN 



195 



hold It fast while the forts could pour shot and shell 
into it. They had also a good many steamboats with 
cannon on them. One of these, the Louisiana, was cov- 
ered with iron. Another was a ram, called the Manas- 
sas. This had a sharp iron break, to ram and sink other 
vessels. And there were great coal barges, filled with 
fat pine knots. These were meant for fire-ships. You 
will learn further on what they were for. 

You may see from this that Farragut had some 
hard work before him. Even if he got past the chains 
and the forts, all his ships might be set on fire by the 
fireships. But the bold captain was not one of the 
kind that minds things like that. Now let us go on to 
the story of the terrible river fight, which has long been 
one of the most famous battles of the war. 

Porter's mortar boats were anchored under the 
trees on the river bank, two miles below the forts. 
With their green-clad masts they looked like trees them- 
selves. At ten o'clock in the morning of April 18, 
1862, the first mortar sent its big shell whizzing through 
the air. And for six days this was kept up, each of the 
mortars booming out once every ten minutes. That 
made one shot for every half minute. 

Two days after the mortars began a bold thing was 
done. The gunboat Itasca set out in the darkness of 
the night and managed to get between the shore and 
the chain. Then it ran up stream above the chain till 
it got a good headway. It now turned round and came 
down at full speed before the strong current. 

Fort Jackson was firing and balls were rattling all 
about the bold Itasca, but she rushed on through them 
all. Plump against the chain she came, with a thud 



o 








6 



that lifted her three feet out of the water. Then the 
chain snapped in two and away went the Itasca down 
stream. The barrier was broken and the way to New 
Orleans lay open before the fleet. 

On the 23d of April Farragut gave his orders to 
the captains of the fleet. That night they were to try 
and pass the forts and fight their way to New Orleans. 
At two o'clock in the morninof came the welcome 
order, " All hands up anchor ! " and at three o'clock all 
was ready for the start. 

The night was dark, but on the banks near Fort 
Jackson there was a blazing wood fire, that threw its 
light across the stream. And Porter's bombs were be- 
ing fired as fast as the men could drop the balls into 
them, so that there was a great arch of fiery shells be- 
tween the mortar boats and the forts. 

The gunboat Cayuga led the way through the 
broken barrier. After her came the Pensacola, one of 
the large vessels. All this time the forts had kept still, 
but now they blazed out with all their guns, and the 
air was full of the boomingf of cannon and the screech- 
ing of shells from forts and ships. 

Great piles of wood were kindled on the banks, 
and the fireships up stream were sent blazing down the 
river as the steam-vessels came rushing up into the fire 
of the forts. Never had the Mississippi seen so terri- 
ble a night. The blazing wood and flashing guns 
made it as light as day, and the roar was like ten thun- 
derstorms. 

Soon the Hartford came on, with Farragut on her 
deck. So thick was the smoke that she ran aground, 

196 



FARRAGUT WINS RENOWN 



197 



and before she could get off a fireship came blazing 
down against her side, pushed by a tug-boat straight 
on to her. In a minute the paint on the ship's side was 
in a blaze and the flames shot up half as high as the 
masts. The men at the guns drew back from the 
scorching heat. 

" Don't flinch from that blaze, boys," cried Farra- 
gut. "Those who don't do their duty here will find a 
hotter fire than that." 

For a brief time the good ship was in great dan- 
ger. But a shower of shells sent the daring tug boat 
to the bottom and the fireship floated away. Then a 
hose pipe spirted water on the flames. The fire was 
put out and the Hartford was saved. 

That was only the beginning of the great battle. 
From that time on fire and flame, boom and roar, death 
and destruction were everywhere. The great shells 
from the mortars dropped 
bursting into the forts. The 
huge wood piles blazed high 
on the banks. Ships and 
forts hurled a frightful 
shower of shells at each 
other. Blazing fireships 
came drifting down. The 
foremost boats were fiercely 
fighting with the Confeder- 
ate craft. The hindmost 
boats were fighting with the 
forts. The uproar seemed 
enough to drive the very 
moon from the sky. 










But soon victory began to hold out her hand to the . 
Union fleet. For all the ships passed the forts, some 
of the Confederate vessels were driven ashore and 
others fled up stream, and in a little while only three of 
them were left, and these were kept safe under the guns 
of the fort. The battle had been fought and won, and 
the triumphant fleet steamed up the river to New 
Orleans. The forts were still there but what could they 
do, with Union forces above and below? Four days 
after the fight they were surrendered to Porter and his 
mortar fleet. 

There was one final act to the great Mississippi 
battle. For as Commander Porter, in his flagship, lay 
near Fort Jackson, down on him came the iron-clad 
Louisiana, all in a blaze. But just before she reached 
his vessel she blew up, and that was the end of the 
Louisiana and the fight. The river was open and New 
Orleans was captured. Thus ended the greatest naval 
battle of the civil war. 

Two years and more afterward Farragut fought 
another great battle. This was in the Bay of Mobile, 
then a great place for blockade-runners. These were 
swift vessels that brought goods from Europe to the 
South. The Union fleet did all it could to stop them, 
but they could not be stopped at Mobile from outside, 
so Farragut was told to fight his way inside the bay. 
And that is what he did. 

Mobile Bay is like a great bell, thirty miles long 
and fifteen miles wide. There are two islands at the 
mouth, so that the entrance is not more than a mile 
wide. And on each of these islands was a strong fort, 
which had been built by the government before the war. 
198 



FARRAGUT WINS RENOWN 

The Confederates had taken possession of these forts 
and had big guns in them. 

The first thing to do was to pass the forts. No 
chain could be put across the channel here, but there 
was something worse, for nearly two hundred torpedoes 
were planted in the water near the forts. Some of these 
were made of beer-kegs and some of tin, and they were 
planted so thickly that it was not easy to get in without 
setting them off. Then, when the fort and the torpedoes 
were passed, there were the ships. Three of these were 
small gunboats, of not much account. But there was a 
great iron-clad ship, the Tennessee, which was twice as 
stronor as the Merrimac. It was covered with iron five 
or six inches thick, and carried a half dozen big guns. 

Franklin Buchanan, who had been captain of the 
Merrimac was admiral of the Tennessee. 

But Admiral Farragut — he was an admiral now 
had his iron-clad vessels, too. Four monitors like the 
old Monitor of Hampton Roads, had been built and 
sent him, and these, with his wooden vessels, made 
nearly twenty ships. 

Such was the fleet with which Farragut set out for 
his second great victory, early in the morning of August 
5, 1864. It was six o'clock when the ships crossed the 
bar and headed in for Fort Morgan. 

On they went, bravely and boldly, firing at the 
fort. But not a shot came back till the leading ships 
were in front of its stronof stone walls. Then there 
began a terrible roar and a storm of iron balls poured 
out at the ships. If the guns had been well aimed 
dreadful work might have been done, but the balls went 
screaming through the air and hardly touched a ship. 





And the fierce fire from the ships drove many of the 
men in the fort from their o-uns. 

But now I have a terrible tale to tell, a tale of 
death and destruction, of the sinking of a ship with her 
captain and nearly all her crew on board. 

This was the monitor Tecumseh. It was steered 
straight out where the torpedoes lay thick. Suddenly 
there came a dull roar. The bow of the iron-clad was 
lifted like a feather out of the water. Then it sank till 
it pointed downward like a boy diving and the stern was 
lifted up into the air. In a second more the good ship 
went down with a mighty plunge. 

But there is one fine story to tell, the story of a 
gallant man. This was Captain Craven, of the Tecumseh. 
He and the pilot were in the pilot-house and both sprang 
for the opening. But there was room only for one. The 
brave captain drew back. 

" After you, pilot," he said. 

The pilot escaped, but the noble captain, with 
ninety-two of his men, sank to the depths. 

A boat was sent to pick up the swimmers, with a 
gallant young ensign, H. C. Neilds, in charge. Out 
they rowed where the waters were being torn and 
threshed with shot and shell. The ensign was only a 
boy, but he had the spirit of a Perry. He saw that his 
flag was not flying, and he coolly raised it in the face of 
the foe, and then sat down to steer. 

Brave men were there by the hundreds, but none 
were braver than their admiral, their immortal Farragut. 
The smoke blinded his eyes on deck, so he climbed to 
the top of the mainmast, and there, lashed to the rig- 
ging, he went in through the thick of the fire. Shells 



200 



FA RR A GUT WINS RENOWN 



20I 



screeched past him, great iron balls hustled by his ears, 
but not a quiver came over his noble face. He had to 
be where he could see, he said. Danger did not count 
where duty called. 

On past the forts went ships and monitors, heedless 
of torpedoes or of the fate of the Tecumseh. Only one 
captain showed the white feather. The Brooklyn held 
back. 

" What is the matter?" screamed Farragut. 

"Torpedoes," was the only word that reached his 
ears. 

The gallant admiral then used a strong word. It 
was not a word to be used in polite society. But we 
must remember that battle was raging about him and 
he was in a fury. 

" Damn the torpedoes !" he cried. " Follow me !" 

Straight on the good ship sailed, right for the nest 
of torpedoes, with the admiral in the shrouds. 

In a minute more the Hartford was among them. 
They could be heard striking against her bottom. 
Their percussion caps snapped, but not one went off. 
Their tin cases had rusted and they were spoiled. Only 
one of them all went off that dreadful day of battle. 
That saved many of the ships. 

The fort and the torpedoes were passed, but the 
Confederate ships remained. It did not take long to 
settle for the gun-boats, but the iron-clad Tennessee 
remained. 

Putting on all steam, this great ship ran down on 
the Union fleet. Through the whole line it went and 
on to the fort. But it was as slow as a tub and the 
ships were easily kept out of its way. 




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Then, when the men were at breakfast, back 
again came the Tennessee, They left their coffee and 
ran to their guns. It was Hke the old story of the 
Merri77iac and the wooden ships in Hampton Roads. 

But Farragut did not wait to be rammed by the 
Tennessee. If ramming was to be done he wanted to 
do it himself. So all the large vessels steamed head on 
for the iron-clad, butting her right and left. They hit 
one another, too, and the Hartford came near being 
sunk. Then came the monitors, as the first Monitor had 
come against th.Q. Merrimac. There were three of these 
left, but one did the work, the Chickasaw. She clung 
like a burr to the Tennessee, pouring in her great iron 
balls, and doing so much damage that soon the great 
ship was like a floating hulk. It could not be steered 
nor its guns fired. 

For twenty minutes it stood this dreadful hammer- 
ing, and then its flag came down. The battle was won. 

" It was the most desperate battle I ever fought 
since the days of the old Essex" said Farragut. 

The figure of the brave admiral in the rigging, 
fighting his ship amid a cyclone of shot and shell, 
made him the hero of the American people. It was 
like Dewey on the bridge in Manila Bay in a later war. 
There was no rank high enough in the navy to fit 
the glory he had won, so one was made for him, the 
rank of Admiral. There was rear-admiral and vice- 
admiral, but admiral was new and higher still. Only 
two men have held this rank since his day, his good 
friend and comrade David D. Porter and the brave 
George Dewey. 



i 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

A River Fleet in a Hail of Fire. 

ADMIRAL PORTER RUNS BY THE FORTS IN A NOVEL WAY. 

IF course, you know what a tremendous job the 
North had before it in the Civil War. The war 
between the North and South was Hke a battle 
of giants. And the navy had to do its share, both out 
at sea and on the rivers of the country, in this vast con- 
test. One of its big bits of work was to cut off the left ^J 
arm of the Confederacy, and leave it only its right arm 
to fight with. 

By the left arm I mean the three States west of the 
Mississippi River, and by the right arm the eight States 
east of that great river. To cut off this left arm the 
government had to get control of the whole river, from 
St. Louis to the Gulf, so that no Confederate troops 
could cross the great stream. 

You have read how Farragut and Porter began 
this work, by capturing New Orleans and all the river 
below it. And they went far up the river, too. But in 
the end such great forts were built at Vicksburg and 
Port Hudson and other points that the Confederate 
government held the river in a tight grasp. 

In this way the Confederacy became master of the 
Mississippi for a thousand miles. We want to see now 
how it was taken from their grasp. 

James B. Eads, the engineer who built the great 
railroad bridge over the Mississippi at St. Louis, made 

203 




CAPTAIS 
COGHEA."N« 

AT TMt WMtCU 
OF IHt RALtlCH 



The " Raleigh " took an important 

part in the operation around Cuba 

in the war with Spain. Captain 

Coghlac won distinction. 







the first iron-clads for the West. There were seven of 
these. They were river steamers, and were covered 
with iron, but it was not very thick. Two others were 
afterward built, making nine in all. 

Each of these boats had thirteen guns, and they 
did good work in helping the army capture two strong 
Confederate forts in Kentucky. Then they went down 
the Mississippi to an island that was called Island No. 
lo. It was covered with forts, stretching one after an- 
other all alonor its shore. 

A number of mortar boats were brought down and 

o 

threw shells into the forts till they were half paved with 
iron. But all that did no good. Then Admiral Foote 
was asked to send one of the boats down past the forts. 

That was dreadfully dangerous work, for there 
were guns enough in them to sink twenty such boats. 
But Captain Walke thought he could take his boat, the 
Carondelet, down, and the admiral told him he might 
try. 

What was the Carondelet like, do you ask ? Well, 
she was a long, wide boat, with sloping sides and a flat 
roof, and was covered with iron two and a half inches 
thick. Four of her guns peeped out from each side, 
while three peeped from the front door, and two from 
the back door of the boat. 

Captain Walke did not half expect to get through 
the iron storm from the forts. To make his boat 
stronger, extra planks were laid on her deck and chain 
cables were drawn tightly across it. Then lumber was 
heaped thickly round the boiler and engines, and ropes 
were wrapped round and round the pilot-house till they 
were eighteen inches thick. 

204 



A RIVER FLEET IN A HAIL OF FIRE 



205 



After that a barge filled with bales of hay was tied 
fast to the side that would catch the fire of the forts. 
Something- was done also to stop the noise of the steam 
pipes, for Captain Walke thought he might slip down 
at night without being seen or heard. 

On the night of April 10, 1862, the boat made its 
dash down stream. It started just as a heavy thunder- 
storm came on. The wind whistled, the rain poured 
down in sheets, and the men in the forts hid from the 
storm. They were not thinking then of runaway gun- 
boats. 

But something nobody had thought of now took 
place. The blazing wood in the furnaces set fire to the 
soot in the chimneys, and in a minute the boat was like 
a great flaming torch. As the men in the forts sprang 
up, the lightning flashed out on the clouds, and lit up 
"the gallant little ship floating past like a phantom." 

The gunners did not mind the rain any more. 
They ran in great haste to their guns, and soon the bat- 
teries were flaming and roaring louder than the thunder 
itself. 

Fort after fort took it up as the Carondelet slid 
swiftly past. The lightning and the blazing smoke 
stack showed her plainly to the gunners. But the 
bright flashes blinded their eyes so that they could not 
half aim their guns. And thus it was that the brave 
little Carondelet went under the fire of fifty guns with- 
out being- harmed. 

Soon after that Island No. 10 was given up to the 
Union forces. Then the gunboats went farther down 
the river, and had two hard fights, with Confederate 



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boats, one at Fort Pillow and one at Memphis. Both 
these places were captured, and in that way the river 
was opened all the way from St. Louis to Vicksburg. 

The city of Vicksburg is down in the State of 
Mississippi, about two hundred miles above New 
Orleans. Here there are high river banks, and these 
were covered thick with forts, so that Vicksburg was 
the strongest place along the whole stream. 

There were also strong forts at Port Hudson, 
about seventy-five miles below Vicksburg, and these 
seventy-five miles were all the Confederates now held 
of the great stream. But they held these with a very 
strong hand and were not going to let go easily. 

There were some great events at Vicksburg, and I 
want to tell about a few of these next. 

After New Orleans was taken Farragut took his 
ships up the river, running past the forts. He could 
easily have taken Vicksburg then, if he had had any 
soldiers. But he had none, and it took a great army 
of soldiers, under General Grant, to capture it a year 
afterward. 

David D. Porter, who had helped Farragut so well 
in his great fight, was put in command of the Mississippi 
fleet. He had a good many iron-clad boats under him, 
some of them having iron so thin that they were called 
tin-clads. 

Commodore Porter had plenty to do. Now he 
sent his boats up through the Yazoo swamps, then they 
had a fight on the Arkansas River, and in this way he 
was kept busy. 
206 



A RIVER FLEET IN A HAIL OF FIRE 



207 



In February, 1863, he sent two of his boats, the 
Queen of the West and the Indianola, down past the 
Vicksburg forts. That was an easy run. There was 
plenty of firing but nobody was hurt. But after they got 
below they found trouble enough. 

First the Queen of the West ran aground and could 
not be got off. Then the Indianola had a hole rammed 
in her side by a Confederate boat and went to the bot- 
tom. So there wasn't much gained by sending these 
two boats down stream. 

But a curious thing took place. The Confederates 
got the Quee7i of the West off the mud and tried to raise 
the Indianola and stop its leaks. 

While they were hard at work at this they heard a 
frightful roar from the Vicksburg batteries. Looking 
up stream they saw a big boat coming down upon them 
at full speed. When they saw this they put the two 
big guns of the Indianola 
mouth to mouth, fired them 
into each other to ruin them, 
and then ran away. But 
weren't they mad afterward 
when they learned that the 
boat that scared them was 
only a dummy which Porter's 
men had sent down the river 
in a frolic. 

After that the river bat- 
teries did not give the ships 
much trouble. When the 
righ': time came Porter's fleet 
ran down the river through 




JS^CTIOK BE.TWX"ELK THE- 

M."e.f-i^tm:ac and mon^itob — f 





^ 






the fire of all the forts. One boat caught fire and sank, 
but all the rest got safe through. This was done to 
help General Grant, who was marching his army down, 
to get below Vicksburg. 

I suppose all readers of American history know 
about the great event of the 4th of July, 1863. On 
that day Vicksburg was given up to the Union forces, 
with all its forts and all its men. Five days afterward 
Port Hudson surrendered. Porter and his boats now 
held the great river through all its length. 

But there is something more to tell about Admiral 
Porter — who was a rear-admiral now. 

In the spring of 1864 General Banks was sent with 
an army up the Red River. He was going to Shreve- 
port, which is about four hundred miles above where 
the Red River runs into the Mississippi. Porter went 
along with his river fleet to help. 

Now, I have nothing more to say about Banks and 
his army, except that the whole expedition was only a 
waste of time, for it did no good, and there would 
be nothing to say about Porter and his fleet, if they had 
not got into a bad scrape which gave them hard work 



to get out. 



The boats went up the river easily enough, but 
when they tried to come down they found themselves in 
a trap. For after they had gone up, the river began to 
fall and the water came to be very low. 

There are two rapids or small falls on this part of 
the Red River which show only at low water. They 
showed plain enough now, and there were twelve of the 
boats above them, caught fast. 
108 



A RIVER FLEET IN A HAIL OE FIRE 



209 



What was to be done ? If they tried to run down 
the falls they would be smashed into kindling wood. It 
looked very much as if they would have to be left for 
the Confederates, or set on fire and burned. 

By good luck there was one man there who knew 
what to do. He was a lieutenant-colonel from Wis- 
consin, named Joseph Baily. He had been a log-driver 
before the war and knew what was done when logs got 
jammed in a stream. 

When he told his plan he was laughed at by some 
who thought they knew everything, but Porter told him 
to go ahead. So, with 2,000 soldiers from Maine, who 
knew all about logging, he went into the woods, 
chopped down trees, and built a dam below the falls. 

The men worked so hard that it took them only 
eight days to build the dam, which was wonderfully 
quick work. A place was left open in the centre, and 
there four barges loaded with brick were sunk. 

When the dam was finished It lifted the water six 
feet higher, and down In safety went three of the 
steamers, while the army shouted and cheered. But 
just then two of the sunken barges were carried away 
and the water poured through the break in a flood. 

The gunboat Lexington was just ready to start. 
Admiral Porter stood on the bank watching. 

" Go ahead !" he shouted. 

At once the engines were started and the Lexington 
shot down the foaming rapid. There were no cheers 
now ; everybody was still. 

Down she went, rolling and leaping on the wild 
waters ; but soon she shot safe into the still pool below. 
All the other vessels were also safely taken down. 



♦ ♦ * ^ ^ 



^^^^^^ 





CHAPTER XXV. 
The Sinking of the *' Albemarle". 

LIEUTENANT CUSMINQ PERFORMS THE MOST QALLANT DEED OF THE 

CIVIL WAR. 



N 




ow I am going to tell you about the most gallant 
deed done in the navy during the whole Civil 
War. The man who did it was brave enough to 
be made admiral of the fleet, yet he did not get even a 
gold medal for his deed. But he is one of our heroes. 
It is all about an iron-clad steamer, and how it was sent 
to rest in the mud of a river-bottom. 

The Confederate government had very bad luck 
with its iron-clads. It was busy enough building them, 
but they did not pay for their cost. The Mer^rimac 
did the most harm, but it soon went up in fire and 
smoke. 

Then there were the Louisiana at New Orleans, 
and the Tennessee at Mobile. Farrag-ut made short 
work of them. Two were built at Charleston which 
were of little use. The last of them all was the Albe- 
marle, whose story I am about to tell. 

The Roanoke River, in North Carolina, was a fine 
stream for blockade runners. There was a long line of 
ships and gunboats outside, but in spite of them these 
swift runaways kept dashing in, loaded with goods for 
the people. Poor people ! they needed them bad 
enough, for they had little of anything except what they 
could raise in their fields. 

2IO 



SINKING OF THE ALBEMARLE 



211 



But the gunboats kept pushing further into the 
river, and gave the Confederates no end of trouble. 
So they began to build an iron-clad which they thought 
could drive these wooden wasps away. 

This iron-clad was a queer ship. Its keel was laid 
in a cornfield ; its bolts and bars were hammered out 
in a blacksmith shop. Iron for its engines was picked 
up from the scrap heaps of the iron works at Richmond. 
Some of the Confederates laughed at it themselves ; 
but they deserved great credit for building a ship un- 
der such difficulties as these. 

It was finished in April, 1864, and nobody laughed 
at it when they saw it afloat. It was like the Merrimac 
in shape, and was covered with iron four inches thick. 
They named it the Albemarle. 

Very soon the Albemarle showed that it was no 
laughing matter. It sank one gunboat and made an- 
other run away in great haste. Then it had a fight 
with four of them at once and drove one of these lame 
and limping away. The others did not come too near. 
After that it went back to the town of Plymouth and 
was tied up at the wharf. 

There was another iron-clad being built, and the 
Albemarle was kept waiting so that the two could work 
together. That was a bad thing for the Albemarle, for 
she never went out again. 

This brings us back to the gallant deed I spoke of, 
and the gallant fellow who did the deed. His name 
was William B. Cushing. He was little more than a boy, 
just twenty-one years old, but he did not know what it 
meant to be afraid, and he had done so many daring 
things already that he had been made a lieutenant. 



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He wanted to try and destroy the Albemarle, and 
his captain, who knew how bold a fellow he was, told 
him to go ahead and do his best. 

So on a dark night in October, 1864, brave young 
Gushing started up the river in a steam-launch with men 
and guns. At the bow of this launch was a long spar, 
and at the end of this spar was a torpedo holding a 
hundred pounds of dynamite. There was a trigger and 
a cap to set this off, a string to lower the spar and an- 
other to pull the trigger. But it was a poor affair to 
send on such an expedition as that. 

And this was not the worst. Some of the news- 
papers had found out what Gushing was going to do, 
and printed the whole story. And some of these news- 
papers got down South and let out the secret. That is 
what is called " newspaper enterprise." It is very good 
in its right place, but it was a sort of enterprise that 
nearly spoiled Cushing's plans. 

For the Gonfederates put lines of sentries along 
the river, and stationed a lookout down the stream, and 
placed a whole regiment of soldiers near the wharf. 
And logs were chained fast around the vessel so that 
no torpedo spar could reach her. And the men on 
board were sharply on the watch. That is what the 
newspapers did for Lieutenant Gushing. 

Of course, the young lieutenant did not know all 
this, and he felt full of hope as his boat went up stream 
without being seen or heard. The night was very dark, 
and there were no lights on board, and the engines were 
new and made no noise. 

So he passed the lookout in the river and the sen 
tries on the banks without an eye seeing him or his boat. 



J 




SINKING OF THE ALBEMBRLE 

But when he came up to the Iron-clad his hopes 
went down. For there was the boom of logs so far out 
that his spar could not reach her. 

What was he to do ? Should he land at the wharf, 
take his men on board, and try to capture her where she 
lay? 

Before he had time to think it was too late for that. 
A sentry on board saw the launch and called out, — 

" Boat ahoy !" There was no answer. 

" What boat is that ?" Still no answer. 

Then came a musket shot, and then a rattle of 
musketry from the river bank. A minute after lights 
flashed out and men came running down the wharf. 
The ship's crew tumbled up from below. All was haste 
and confusion. 

Almost any man would have given it up for lost 
and run for safety. But Gushing was not of that kind. 
It did not take him a second to decide. He ran the 
launch out into the stream, turned her round, and dashed 
at full speed straight for the boom. 

A storm of bullets came from the deck of the Albe- 
marle, but he heeded them no more than if they were 
snow-flakes. In a minute the bow of the launch struck 
the logs. 

They were slippery with river slime and the light 
boat climbed up on them, driving them down under the 
water. Over she went, and slid into the water inside 
the boom. 

Gushing stood in the bow, with the trigger-string 
in his hand. He lowered the torpedo under the hull of 
the iron-clad, lifted it till he felt it touch her bottom, 
and then pulled the string. 





There came two loud reports, A hundred-pounder 
gun was being fired from the ship's side right over his 
head. Along with it came a dull roar from under the 
water. The dynamite torpedo had gone off, tearing a 
great hole in the wooden bottom. In a minute the ill- 
fated Albe^narle beean to sink. 

The launch was fast inside the boom, and the wave 
from the torpedo was rushing over her, carrying her 
down. 

" Surrender," came a voice from above. 

" Never ! Swim for your lives, men," cried Gush- 
ing, and he sprang into the flowing stream. 

Two or three bullets had gone through his cloth- 
ing, but he was unhurt, and swam swiftly away, his men 
after him. 

Only Gushing and one of the men got away. The 
others were captured except one, who was drowned. 
Boats were quickly out, a fire of logs was made on the 
wharf, which threw its light far out over the stream, 
but he reached the shore unseen, chilled to the bone 
and completely worn-out. 

A sentry was pacing on the wall of a fort over his 
head, men passed looking for him, but he managed to 
creep to the swamp near by and hide in the mud and 
reeds. 

There he lay till break of day. Then he crawled 
on till he got into a cornfield near by. Now for the 
first time he could stand up and walk. But just as he 
got to the other side of the field he came face to face 
with a man. 

Gushing was not afraid. It was a black face. In 
those days no Union soldier was afraid of a black face. 
214 



SINKING OF THE ALBEMARLE 

The slaves would do anything for " Massa Linkums' 
sojers." The young lieutenant was almost as black as 
the slave after his long crawl through the mud. 

Cushine told him who he was, and sent him into 
the town for news, waiting in the cornfield for his return. 
After an hour the messenger came back. His face was 
smilinof with deliofht, 

" Good news, Massa," he said. " De big iron ship's 
gone to de bottom suah. Folks dar say she'll neber 
git up agin." 

*' Mighty good," said Gushing. " Now, old man, 
tell me how I can get back to the ships." 

The negro told him all he could, and with a warm 
** Good by" the fugitive took to the swamp again. On 
he went, hour by hour, forcing his way through the 
thick bushes and wading in the deep mud. Thus he 
went on, mile after mile, until at length, at two o'clock 
in the afternoon, he found himself on the banks of a 
narrow creek. 

Here he heard voices and drew back. Looking 
through the bushes he saw a party of seven soldiers 
just landing from a boat. They tied the boat to the 
root of a tree and went up a path that led back from the 
river. Soon they stopped, sat down, and began to eat 
their dinner. They could see their boat from where 
they sat, but they were too busy eating to think of that. 

Here was Cushing's chance. It was a desperate 
one, but he was ready to try anything. He lowered 
himself quietly into the stream, swam across, and untied 
the boat. Then he noiselessly pushed it out and swam 
with it down stream. As soon as he was out of sight of 




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the soldiers he cHmbed In and rowed away as fast as he 
could. What the soldiers thought and said when they 
missed their boat nobody knows. He did not see them 
again. 

It was a long journey. The creek was crooked 
and winding. Night came on before he reached the 
river. Then he paddled on till midnight. Ten hours 
of hard toil had passed when he saw the dark hull of a 
gunboat near by. 

" Ship ahoy !" he cried. 

" Who goes there?" called the lookout. 

" A friend. Take me up." 

A boat was lowered and rowed towards him. The 
officer in it looked with surprise when he saw a mud- 
covered man, with scratched and bleeding face. 

" Who are you ?" he asked. 

" Lieutenant Gushing, or what is left of him." 

" Gushing ! — and how about the Albemarle f 

" She will never trouble Uncle Sam's ships again. 
She lies in her muddy grave on the bottom of the 
Roanoke." 

Gheers followed this welcome news, and when the 
gallant lieutenant was safe on board the Valley City the 
cheers grew tenfold. 

For Lieutenant Gushing had done a deed which 
was matched for daring only once in the history of our 
navy, and that was when Decatur burned the Philadel- 
phia in the harbor of Tripoli. 



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DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP" 

Capt. Lawrence, War of 1812. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



How the "Gloucester 
Sinking of the 



Revenged the 
Maine." 



DEADLY AND HEROIC DEEDS IN THE WAR WITH SPAIN. 

mF you look at a map of the country we dwell in, 
you will see that it has a finger pointing south. 
That finger is called Florida, and it points to the 
beautiful island of Cuba, which spreads out there to 
right and left across the sea of the South. 

The Spaniards in Cuba were very angry when they 
found the United States trying to stop the war which 
they had carried on so mercilessly. They thought this 
country had nothing to do with their affairs. And in 
Havana, the capital city of the island, riots broke out 
and Americans were insulted. 

Never before in the history of the United States 
navy had there been so terrible a disaster as the sink- 
ino- of the Maine by a frightful and deadly explosion in 
the harbor of Havana, Cuba, on February 15, 1898, and 
never was there greater grief and indignation in the 
United States than when the story was told. 

Do you know what followed this dreadful disaster? 
But of course you do, for it seems almost yesterday 
that the Maine went down with her slaughtered crew. 
Everybody said that the Spaniards had done this terri- 
ble deed and Spain should pay for it. We all said so 
and thought so, you and I and all true Americans. 

Before the loss of the Maine many people thought 

217 



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we ought to go to war with Spain, and put an end to the 
cruehywith which the Cubans were treated. After her 
loss there were not many who thought we ought not 
to. Our people were in a fury. They wanted war, 
and were eager to have it. 

The heads of the government at Washington felt 
the same way. Many millions of dollars were voted by 
Congress, and much of this was spent in buying ships 
and hiring and repairing ships, and much more of it in 
getting the army ready for war 

For Congress was as full of war-feeling as the 
people. President McKinley would have liked to have 
peace, but he could no more hold back the people and 
Congress than a man with an ox-chain could hold back 
a locomotive. So it was that, two months after the 
Maine sank into the mud of Havana harbor, like a 
great coffin filled with the dead, war was declared 
against Spain. 

Now, I wish to tell you how the loss of the Maine 
was avenged. I am not going to tell you here all 
about what our navy did in the war. There are some 
good stories to tell about that. But just here we have 
to think about the Maine and her murdered men and 
have to tell about how one of her officers paid Spain 
back for the dreadful deed. 

As soon as the telegraph brought word to the fleet 
at Key West that, " War is declared," the great ships 
lifted their anchors and sped away, bound for Cuba, 
not many miles to the south. And about a month 
afterward this great fleet of battle-ships, and monitors, 
and cruisers, and gunboats were in front of the harbor 
of Santiago, holding fast there Admiral Cervera and his 
218 



SINKING OF THE MAINE 



219 



men, who were in Santiago harbor with the finest war- 
ships owned by Spain. 

There were big ships and little ships, strong ships 
and weak ships, and one of the smallest of them all was 
the little Gloucester. This had once been a pleasure 
yacht, used only for sport. It was now a gunboat 
ready for war. It had only a few small guns, but these 
were of the " rapid-fire" kind, which could pour out iron 
balls almost as fast as hailstones come from the sky in 
a storm. 

And in command of the Gloucester was Lieutenant 
Wainwright, who had been night of^cer of the Mame 
when that ill-fated ship was blown up by a Spanish 
mine. The gallant lieutenant was there to avenge his 
lost ship. 

I shall tell you later about how the Spanish ships 
dashed out of the harbor of Santiago on the 3rd of July 
and what happened to them. 
Just now I wish to tell 
you what Lieutenant Wain- 
wrlofht and the little Glou- 
cester did on that great day, 
and how Spain was made to 
pay for the loss of the Maine. 

As soon as the Spanish 
ships came out, the Glou- 
cester dashed at them, like a 
wasp trying to sting an ox. 
She steamed right across 
the mouth of the harbor 
until she almost touched 
one of the great Spanish 






THE. 
GLOtrcXSTZJR- 





ships, all the time firing away like mad at its iron 
sides. 

The brave Wainwright saw two little boats com- 
ing out behind these big ones. These were what are 
called torpedo-boats. 

Do you know what this means ? A torpedo-boat 
is little, but it can dart through the water with the speed 
of the wind. And it carries torpedoes — iron cases filled 
with dynamite — which it can shoot out against the great 
war-ships. One of these could tear a gaping hole in the , 
side of a battle-ship and send it, with all on board, to the 
bottom. A torpedo-boat is the rattlesnake of the sea. 
It is little but it is deadly. 

But Lieutenant Wainwright and the men of the 
Gloucester were not afraid of the Furor and the Pluton^ 
the Spanish torpedo-boats. As soon as they saw these 
boats they drove their little vessel toward them at full 
speed. The Gloucester came under the fire of one of 
the Spanish forts, but she did not mind that any more 
than if boys were throwing oyster-shells at her. 

Out from her guns came a torrent of balls like 
water from a pump. But the water drops were made 
of iron, and hit hard. The Furor and Pluton tried to 
fire back, but their men could not stand that iron rain. 
For twenty minutes it kept on, and then all was over 
with the torpedo-boats. They tried to run ashore, but 
down to the bottom they both went. Of all their men 
only about two dozen were picked up alive. The rest 
sank to the bottom of the bay. 

Thus Wainwright and his little yacht avenged the 
Maine, and the dreadful tragedy in Havana harbor was 
paid for in Santiago Bay. 




CHAPTER XXVII. 

The Great Victory of Manila Bay. 

DEWEY DESTROYS A FLEET WITHOUT LOSING A MAN. 

Ieorge Dewey was a Green Mountain boy, a son 
of the Vermont hills. Many good stories are 
told of his schoolboy days, and when he grew up 
to be a man everybody that knew him said that he was 
a fine fellow, who would make his mark. And they said 
right, though he had to wait a long time for the chance 
to show what he would do. 

Dewey was sent to the Naval Academy at Annapolis, 
Maryland, and when the Civil War began he was a 
lieutenant In the navy. He was with Farragut on the 
Misslsslpl, and did some gallant deeds on that great river. 

When the war with Spain began Dewey was on 
the Chinese coast with a squadron of American ships. 
He had been raised In rank and was Commodore 
Dewey then. A commodore, you should know, was 
next above a captain and next below an admiral. 

Commodore Dewey had four fine ships, the cruis- 
ers Olympia^ Baltimore, Raleigh, and Boston. He had 
also two gunboats and a despatch-boat, making seven 
in all. 

These vessels were at Hong Kong, a British seaport 
in China. They could not stay there after war with Spain 
was declared, for Hong Kong was a neutral port, and 
after war begins fighting ships must leave neutral ports. 
But Dewey knew where to go, for under the ocean and 
over the land there had come to him a telegram from 
Washington, more than ten thousand miles away, which 





'/'•"*:rN 




Seek the Spanish fleet and capture or destroy 
>ewey did not waste any time in obeying orders, 
knew where to seek the Spanish fleet. A few 
miles away to the east of China lay the fine 
)f islands called the Philippines, which then be- 
to Spain. In Luzon, the biggest of these 
was the fine large city of Manila, the centre of 
the Spanish power in the East. So straight across the 
China Sea Dewey went at all speed towards this sea- 
port of Spain. 

On the morning of Saturday, April 30, 1898, the 
men on the leading ship saw land rising in the dis- 
tance, green and beautiful, and further away they be- 
held the faint blue lines of the mountains of Luzon. 
Down this verdant tropical coast they sped, and when 
night was near at hand they came close to the entrance 
of Manila Bay. 

Here there were forts to pass and the ships were 
slowed up. Dewey was ready to fight with ships, but 
he did not want to fight with forts, so he waited for 
darkness to come before going in. He thought that he 
might then pass these forts without being seen by the 
men in them. 

They waited until near midnight, steaming slowly 
along until they came to the entrance to the bay. The 
moon was in the sky, but gray clouds hid its light. They 
could see the two dark headlands of the harbor's mouth 
rising up, and between them was a small, low island. 
On this island were the forts which they had to pass. 

As they came near, all the lights on the ships were 
put out or hidden, except a small electric light at the 
stern of each ship for the next one to see and follow. 
222 



GREAT VICTORY OF MANILA BAY 



223 



Steam was put on, and the ships glided swiftly and 
silently in, like shadows in the darkness. All was silent 
in the Spanish forts. The sentinels seemed fast asleep. 

Some of the ships were past before the Spaniards 
waked up. Then a rocket shot up into the air, and 
there came a deep boom and a flash of flame. A shell 
went whizzing through the darkness over the ships and 
plunged into the water beyond. 

Some shots were fired back, but in a few minutes 
it was all over and Dewey's squadron was safe in 
Manila Bay. The gallant American sailors had made 
their way into the lion's den. 

The Bay of Manila is a splendid body of water, 
running many miles into the land. The city of Manila 
is about twenty miles from the harbor's mouth, and the 
ships had to go far in before its distant lights were 
seen, gleaming like faint stars near the earth. 

But it was not the city Dewey was after. He was 
seeking the Spanish fleet. When the dawn came, and 
the sun rose behind the city, he saw sails gleaming in 
its light. But these were merchant vessels, not the war- 
ships he had come so far to find. 

The keen eyes of the commodore soon saw the 
ships he was after. There they lay, across the mouth 
of the little bay of Cavite, south of the city, a group of 
ships-of-war, nine or ten in number. 

This brings us to the beginning of the great naval 
battle of the war. Let us stop now and take a look 
around. If you had been there I know what you would 
have said. You would have said that the Americans 
were sure to win, for they had the biggest ships and the 
best guns. 




JJC.'WE.V orT TBE. 
I,K,-IPOt OF THE, 



'You may fire when you are ready, 
Captain Gridley."— Dewey's fa- 
mous words at Manila. 




^ 




Yes, but you must remember that the Spaniards 
were at home and the Americans were not, and that 
makes a great difference. If they had met out on the 
open sea Dewey would have had the best of the game. 
But here were the Spanish ships drawn up in a Hne 
across a narrow passage, with a fort on the right and a 
fort on the left, and with dynamite mines under the 
water. And they knew all about the distances and 
soundings and should have known just how to aim their 
guns so as to hit a mark at any distance. All this the 
Americans knew nothing about. 

When we think of this it looks as if Dewey had 
the worst of the game. But some of you may say that 
the battle will tell best which side had the best and 
which the worst. Yes, that's true; but we must always 
study our players before we begin our game. 

George Dewey did not stop long to think and 
study. He was there to take his chances. The minute 
he saw the Spanish ships he went for them as a football 
player goes for the line of his opponents. 

Forward went the American squadron, with the 
stars and stripes floating proudly at every mast-head. 
First of all was the flagship Olympia, with Dewey 
standing on its bridge. Behind came the other ships 
in a long line. 

As they swept down in front of the city the great 
guns of the forts sent out their balls. Then the bat- 
teries on shore began to fire. Then the Spanish ships 
joined in. There was a terrible roar. Just in front of 
the Olympia two mines exploded, sending tons of water 
into the air. But they had been set off too soon, and 
no harm was done. 




A 



'^ #- 



DEWEY ON THE BRIDGE OF THE "OLYMPIA," MAY i, 1898 



GREAT VICTORY OF MANILA BAY 



225 



All this time the American ships swept grandly on, 
not firing a gun, and Dewey stood still on the bridge 
while shot and shell from the Spanish guns went hurt- 
ling past. He was there to see, and danger did not 
count just then. 

As they drove on an old sea-dog raised the cry, 
" Remember the Mainef and in a minute the shout ran 
through the ship. Still on went the Olympia, like a 
great mastiff at which curs are barking. At length 
Dewey spoke, — 

"You may fire when you are ready, Captain Grid- 
ley," he said. Captain Gridley was ready and waiting. 
In an instant a great 8-inch shell from the Olympia 
went screaming through the air. 

This was the signal. The Baltimore and Boston 
followed, and before five minutes had passed every ship 
was pouring shot and shell on the Spanish squadron and 
forts. Great guns and small guns, slow-fire guns and 
rapid-fire guns, hand guns and machine guns, all boomed 
and barked together, and their shot whistled and 
screamed, uniil it sounded like a mighty carnival of death. 

Down the Spanish line swept the American ships. 
Then they turned and swept back, firing from the other 
side of the ships. Six times, this way, they passed the 
Spanish ships, while the air was full of great iron balls 
and dense clouds of smoke floated over all. 

You will not ask which side had the best of the battle 
after I tell you one thing. The Americans had been 
trained to aim and fire, and the Spaniards had not. Here 
overhead flew a Spanish shell. There another plunged 
into the water without reaching a ship. Hardly one of 
15 



#♦ %^ 



-^ -^ 



*^- 






them reached its mark. Not an American was killed or 
wounded. A box of powder went off and hurt a few 
men^ and that was all. 

But the Spanish ships were rent and torn like deer 
when lions get among them, and their men fell by doz- 
ens at a time. It was one of the most one-sided figfhts 
ever seen. 

Admiral Montojo, of the Spanish fleet, could not 
stand this. He started out with his flagship, named 
the Rei7ia Cristina, straight for the Olympia, which he 
hoped to cut in two. But as soon as his ship appeared 
all the American ships turned their guns on it, and rid- 
dled it with a frightful storm of iron. 

The brave Spaniard saw that his ship would be 
sunk if he went on. He turned to run back, but as he 
did so a great 8-inch shell struck his ship in the stern 
and went clear through to the bow, scattering death 
and destruction on every side. It exploded one of the 
boilers. It blew open the deck. It set the ship on fire. 
White smoke came curling up. The ship fought on as 
the fire burned, but she was past hope. 

Two torpedo-boats came out, but they could not 
stand the storm any better than the Reina Cristina. In 
a few minutes one of them was cut through and went 
like a stone to the bottom. The other ran in faster 
than she had come out and went ashore. 

For two hours this dreadful work went on. Then 
Dewey thought it was time to give his men a rest and let 
them have some breakfast, so he steamed away. Three 
of the Spanish ships were burning like so much tinder, 
and it was plain that the battle was as good as won. 
326 



GREAT VICTORY OF MANILA BAY 



227 



A little after 1 1 o'clock the American ships came 
back fresh as ever, and all of them with the stars and 
stripes afloat. The Spanish flag was flying too, but 
nearly every ship was in flames. But the Spaniards 
were not whipped yet. They began to fire again, and 
so for another hour the fight went on. At the end of 
that time the guns were silenced, the flags had gone 
down, and the battle was won. 

That was the end of the most one-sided victory in 
the history of the American navy. All the Spanish 
ships were on fire and had sunk in the shallow 
bay. Hundreds of their men were dead or wounded 
The American ships were nearly as good as ever, for 
hardly a shot had struck them, and only eight men 
were slightly hurt. The Spaniards had fired fast 
enough, but they had wasted nearly all their shot. 

When the people of the United States heard of 
this great victory they were wild with delight. Before 
that very few had heard of George Dewey; now he was 
looked on as one of our greatest naval heroes. " Dewey 
on the bfidge," with shot and shell screaming about 
him, was as fine a figure as "Farragut in the shrouds " 
had once been. 

Congress made him a Rear-Admiral at once, and 
soon after they made him an Admiral. This is the 
highest rank in the American navy. Only Farragut 
and Porter had borne it before. 



D 













6 



<^ 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Hobson and the Sinking of the 
** Merrimac." 

A HEROIC DEED WORTHY OF THE AMERICAN NAVY. 

S^^HoME of US know what a dark night is and some 
of us don't. Those who live in cities, under 
— — * the glare of the electric light, hardly ever see 
real darkness. One must go far into the country, and 
be out on a cloudy night, to know what it means to be 
really in the dark. Or to be out at sea, with not a light 
above or below. 

It was on such a night that a great black hulk 
moved like a sable monster through the waters off the 
coast of Cuba. This was the night of June 3, 1898. 
There was a moon somewhere in the sky, but thick 
clouds lay over it and snuffed out its light. And on 
the vessel not a light was to be seen and not a sound 
could be heard. It was like a mighty beast gliding on 
its prey. 

This vessel was the '' Merrimac^' which had carried 
a load of coal to the American fleet that lay outside of 
Santiago de Cuba. Inside the harbor there were four 
fine Spanish ships-of-war. But these were like foxes 
run into their hole, with the hunters waiting for them 
outside. 

The harbor of Santiago is something like a great, 
misshapen water-bottle, and the passage into the harbor 
is like the neck of the bottle. Now, if you want to keep 
228 




SINKING OF THE MERRIMAC 

anything from getting out of a bottle you drive a cork 
into its neck. And that is just what the Americans 
were trying to do. The Merrimac was the cork with 
which they wanted to fasten up the Spanish ships in 
the water-bottle of Santiago. 

The captain of the Merrimac was a young officer 
named Richard P. Hobson, who was ready to give his 
life, if he must, for his country. Admiral Sampson did 
not like to send any one into such terrible danger, but 
the daring young man insisted on going, and he had no 
trouble in getting seven men to go with him. 

Most of the coal had been taken out of the Mem- 
mac, but there was enough left to sink her to the bottom 
like a stone. And along both sides there had been 
placed a row of torpedoes, filled with gunpowder and with 
electric wires to set them off when the right time came. 

Hobson was to try and take the ship in to the right 
spot, and then to blow holes in her sides with the tor- 
pedoes and sink her across the channel. Would not he 
and his men sink with her ? Oh, well, they took the 
chances on» that. 

Lieutenant Hobson had a fine plan laid out ; but 
the trouble with fine plans is that they do not always 
work in a fine way. He was to go in to where the 
channel was very narrow. Then he was to let the 
anchor fall and swing the ship round crossways with the 
rudder. Then he would touch the button to fire the 
torpedoes. When that was done they would all jump 
overboard and swim to the little boat that was towed 
astern. They expected the Merrimac would sink 
across the channel and thus cork it up. 




That was the plan. Don't you think it was a very- 
good one? I am sure Lieutenant Hobson and Admiral 
Sampson thought so, and felt sure they were going to 
give the Spaniards a great deal of trouble. 

It was about three o'clock when the Merrimac 
came into the mouth of the channel. Here it was pitch 
dark and as still as death. But the Spaniards were not 
asleep. They had a small picket-boat in the harbor's 
mouth on the lookout for trouble, and its men saw a 
deeper darkness moving through the darkness. 

They thought it must be one of the American 
war-ships and rowed out and fired several shots at it. 
One of these hit the chains of the rudder and carried 
them off. That spoiled Hobson's plan of steering 
across the channel. You see, as I have just told you, 
it does not take much to spoil a good plan. 

The alarm was given and the Spaniards in the 
forts roused up. They looked out and saw this dark 
shadow gliding swiftly on through the gloom. They, too, 
thought it must be an American battle-ship, and that 
the whole fleet might be coming close behind to attack 
the ships in the harbor. 

The guns of Morro Castle and of the shore bat- 
teries begran to rain their balls on the Merrimac. Then 
the Spanish ships joined in and fired down the channel 
until there was a terrible roar. And as the Merrimac 
drove on, a dynamite mine under the water went off 
behind her, flinging the water Into the air, but not doing 
her any harm. 

The cannonade was fierce and fast, but the dark- 
ness and the smoke of the guns hid the Merrimac, and 
230 



SINKING OF THE MERRIMAC 



231 



she went on unhurt. Soon the narrow part of the 
channel was reached. Then the anchor was dropped 
to the bottom and the engines were made to sfo back- 
ward. The helm was set, but the ship did not turn. 
Hobson now first learned that the rudder chains were 
gone and the ship could not be steered. The little 
picket boat had spoiled his fine plan. 

There was only one thing left to do. He touched 
the electric button. In a second a dull roar came up 
from below and the ship pitched and rolled. A 
thousand pounds of powder had exploded and blown 
great jagged holes in the ship's sides. 

Hobson and his men leaped over the side into the 
water. Those who were slow about it were flung over 
by the shock. Down plunged the Merrimac beneath 
the waves, while loud cheers came from the forts. The 
Spanish gunners were glad, for they thought they had 
sunk a great American battle-ship. 

But it does not matter to us what the Spaniards 
thought. All we want to know is what became of Lieu- 
tenant Hobeon and his darinof men. Their little boat 
had been carried away by a Spanish shot, and there 
they were swimming in the deep waters without know- 
ing what would be their fate. On one side was the sea ; 
on the other were the Spaniards : they did not know 
which would be the worst. 

" I swam away from the ship as soon as I struck 
the water," said Hobson, " but I could feel the eddies 
drawing me backward in spite of all I could do. That 
did not last very long, however, and as soon as I felt the 
tugging cease I turned and struck out for the float. 





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V 



V 



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r7- 



iJifi % 



■^^ 



,s« 



<^<:iCs 



which I could see dipily bobbing up and down over the 
sunken hull." 

The float he spoke of was a sort of raft which lay 
on the ship's deck, with a rope tied to it so as to let it 
float. The rope pulled one side of it a little under the 
water, so that the other side was a little above the water. 

This was a good thing for Hobson and his men, 
for Spanish boats were soon rowing out to where the 
ship had gone down. The eight men got under the 
high side of the raft, and held on to it by putting their 
fingers through the crevices. 

" All night long we stayed there with our noses 
and mouths barely out of the water," says Hobson. 

They were afraid to speak or move, for fear they 
should be shot by the men in the boats. It was that 
way all night long. Boats kept rowing about, some of 
them very close, but nobody thought of looking under 
the raft. The water felt warm at first, but after a while 
it felt cold, and their fingers ached and their teeth 
chattered. 

One of the men, who thought he could not stand 
this any longer, left the raft and started to swim ashore. 
Hobson had to call him back. He came at once, but 
the call was heard on the boats and they rowed swiftly 
up. But they did not find the hiding place of the men 
and rowed away again. 

After daylight came Hobson saw a steam-launch 
approaching from the ships. There were officers in it, 
and when it came near he gave it a hail. His voice 
seemed to scare the men on board, for they backed off 
in great haste. 
233 



SINKING OF THE MERRIMAC 



233 



They were still more surprised when they saw a 
number of men clamber out from under the float. The 
marines in the launch were about to fire, but the officers 
would not let them. 

Then Hobson swam towards the launch and called/ 
out in Spanish, — 

" Is there an officer on board ?" 

"Yes," came the reply. 

" I have seven men to surrender," said Hobson. 

He now swam up and was seized and lifted out of 
the water. One of the men who had hold of him was 
Admiral Cervera, the commander of the Spanish fleet. 

The admiral gave an odd look at the queer kind of 
fish he had caught. Hobson had been in the engine 
room of the Merrimac and was covered with oil, coal- 
dust and soot. But he wore his officer's belt, and 
when he pointed to that the admiral smiled and bade 
him welcome. 

Then the men were taken on board the launch, 
where they were well treated. They had come very 
near death and had escaped. 

Of cou'rse, you want to read the rest of this story. 
Well, they were locked up in Morro Castle. This was 
a fine old fort on the cliff at the harbor's mouth, where 
they could see the great shells come in from the ships 
and explode and see the Spanish gunners fire back. 

Admiral Cervera was very kind to them and sent 
word to Admiral Sampson that they were safe, and that 
he would exchange them for Spanish prisoners. 

They were not exchanged until July 7th, and by 
that time Admiral Cervera's ships had been all destroyed 
and he was a prisoner himself. 




.f. 



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'Ji^ 




CHAPTER XXIX. 
Sampson and 5chley Win Renown. 

THE GREATEST SEA FIGHT OF THE CENTURY. 

I HAVE told you what Hobson did and what Wain- 
wright did at Santiago. Now it is time to tell all 
about what the ships did there ; the story of the 
great Spanish dash for liberty and its woful ending. 

Santiago is the second city of Cuba. It lies as far 
to the east as Havana does to the west, and is on the 
south of the island, while Havana is on the north. 
Like Havana, it has a fine harbor, which is visited by 
many ships. 

Well, soon after the war with Spain began, our naval 
captains were in trouble They had a riddle given them 
for which they could not find the answer. There was a 
squadron of Spanish warships at sea, and nobody knew 
where to look for them. They might fire into the cities 
along the coast and do no end of damage. Maybe there 
was not much danger of this ; but there is nothing sure 
in war, and it does not take much to scare some people. 

The navy wanted to be on the safe side, so one 
part of the fleet was put on the lookout along our' 
coast, and another part, under Commodore Schley, went 
around the west end of the island of Cuba, and a third 
part, under Admiral Sampson, went to the east. They 
were all on the hunt for the Spanish ships, but for days 
and days nothing of them was to be seen. 

After they had looked into this hole, and into that 
hole, along the coast, like sea-dogs hunting a sea-coon, 
234 



SAMPSON AND SCHLEY WIN RENOWN 235 

word came that the Spanish ships had been seen going 
into Santiago harbor. Then straight for Santiago went 
all the fleet, with its captains very glad to have the 
answer to the riddle. 

Never before had the United States so splendid a 
fleet to fight with. There were five fine battle-ships, 
the Iowa, the Lidiaiia, the Massachusetts, the Oregon 
and the Texas. Then there was the New York, Admiral 
Sampson's flag-ship, and the Brooklyn, Commodore 
Schley's flag-ship. These were steel-clad cruisers, not 
so heavy but much faster than the battle-ships. Besides 
these there were monitors, and cruisers, and gunboats, 
and vessels of other kinds, all spread like a net around 
the mouth of the harbor, ready to catch any big fish 
that might swim out. 

Do you not think that was a pretty big crowd of 
ships to deal with the Spanish squadron, which had only 
four cruisers and two torpedo-boats? 

But then, you know, the insider sometimes has a 
better chance than the outsider. It is not easy to keep 
such a crowd of vessels together out at sea. They run 
out of coal, or get out of order, or something else hap 
pens. If the insider keeps his eyes wide open and waits 
long enough his chance will come. 

Admiral Cervera, the Spanish commander, was in 
a very tight place. Outside lay the American ships 
and inside was the American army, which kept pushing 
ahead and was likely to take Santiago in a few days. 
If he waited he might be caught like a rat in a trap. 
And if he came outside he might be caught like a fish 
in a net. He thought it all over and he made up his 










mind that it was better to be a fish than a rat, so he 
decided to come out of the harbor. 

He waited till the 3d of July. On that day there 
were only five of the big ships outside — four of the bat- 
tle-ships and the cruiser Brooklyn. And two of the 
battle-ships were a little out of order and were being 
made right. Admiral Sampson had gone up the coast 
with the New York, for a talk with the army general, so 
he was out of the way. 

No doubt the Spanish lookouts saw all this and 
told their admiral what they had seen. So on that 
Sunday morning, with every vessel under full steam, 
the Spaniards raised their anchors and started on their 
last cruise. 

Now let us take a look at the big ships outside. 
On these everybody was keeping Sunday. The ofiftcers 
had put on their best Siinday clothes, and the men were 
lying or lounging idly about the deck. Of course, there 
were lookouts aloft. Great ships like these always have 
their lookouts. A war-vessel never quite goes to sleep. 
It always keeps one eye open. This Sunday morning 
the lookouts saw smoke coming up the harbor, but 
likely enough they thought that the Spaniards were 
frying fish for their Sunday breakfast. 

And so the hours went on until it was about half- 
past nine. Then an ol^cer on the Brooklyn called to 
the lookout aloft, — 

" Isn't that smoke moving ?" 

The answer came back with a yell that made every- 
body jump, — 

** There's a big ship coming out of the harbor ! " 
236 



SAMPSON AND SCHLEY WIN RENOWN 237 

In a second the groups of officers and men were 
on their feet and wide-awake. The Spaniards were 
coming ! Nobody now wanted to be at home or to go 
a-fishing. There were bigger fish coming into their net. 

"Clear the ship for action!" cried Commodore Schley. 

From every part of the ship the men rushed to 
their quarters. Far down below the stokers began to 
shovel coal like mad into the furnaces. In the turrets 
the gun-crews hurried to get their guns ready. The 
news spread like lightning, and the men made ready 
like magic for the terrible work before them. 

It was the same on all the ships as on the Brook- 
lyn^ for all of them saw the Spaniards coming. Down 
past the wreck of the MeriHniac sped Cervera's ships, 
and headed for the open sea. First came the Maria 
Teresa, the admiral's flagship. Then came the Vizcaya, 
the Oqtiendo, and the Cristobal C0I071, and after them 
the two torpedo-boats. 

" Full speed ahead ! Open fire ! " roared the com- 
modore from the bridge of the Brooklyn, and in a 
second there came a great roar and a huge iron globe 
went screaming towards the Spanish ships. 

It was the same on the other ships. Five minutes 
before they had been swinging lazily on the long rolling 
waves, everybody at rest. Now clouds of black smoke 
came pouring from their funnels, every man was at his 
post, every gun ready for action, and the great ships 
were beginning to move through the water at the full 
power of the engines. And from every one of them 
came flashes as of lightning, and roars as of thunder, and 
huge shells went whirling through the air toward the 
Spanish ships. 






fi m 






Out of the channel they dashed, four noble ships, 
and turned to the west along the coast. Only the 
Brooklyn was on that side of the harbor, and for ten 
minutes three of the Spanish ships poured at her a ter- 
rible fire. 

But soon the Oregon^ the Indiana, the Iowa, and 
the Texas came rapidly up and the Spanish gunners 
had new game to fire at. 

You might suppose that the huge iron shells, 
whirling through the air, and bursting with a frightful 
roar, would tear and rend the ships as though they were 
made of paper. 

But just think how it was at Manilla, where the 
Spaniards fired at the sea and the sky, and the Ameri- 
cans fired at the Spanish ships. It was the same here. 
The Spaniards went wild with their guns and wasted 
their balls, while the Americans made nearly every shot 
tell. 

It was a dreadful tragedy for Spain that day on the 
Cuban coast. The splendid ships, which came out of 
the harbor so stately and trim, soon looked like ragged 
wrecks. In less than half an hour two of them were 
ashore and in a fierce blaze and the two others were 
flying for life. 

The first to yield was the Maria Teresa, the flag- 
ship of the admiral. One shell from the Brooklyn 
burst in her cabin and in a second it was in flames. 
One from the TexashwxsX. in the engine-room and broke 
the steam-pipe. Some burst on the deck ; some riddled 
the hull ; death and terror were everywhere. 

The men were driven from the guns, the flames 
rose higher, the water poured in through the shot holes, 
238 



SAMPSON AND SCHLEY WIN RENOWN 239 

and there was nobody to work the pumps. All was 
lost, and the ship was run ashore and her flag pulled 
down. 

In very few minutes the Oquetido followed the flag- 
ship ashore, both of them looking like great blazing 
torches. The shells from the great guns had torn her 
terribly, many of her crew had been killed, and those 
who were left had to run her ashore to keep her from 
going to the bottom of the sea. 

In half an hour, as you may see, two of the Spanish 
ships had been half torn to pieces and driven ashore 
and only two were still afloat. These were the Vizcaya 
and the Cristobal Colon. 

When the Maine was sent to Havana, before the 
beginning of the war, a Spanish war-ship was sent to 
New York. This was the Vizcaya. She was a trim and 
handsome ship and her officers had a hearty welcome. 

It was a different sort ^^^.^^^^^^-^-^ ^^^^^^^^ 
of welcome she now got. »samoa.ij hur-"k.i<:^me_. 
The Brooklyn and the Ore- 
gon were after her and her 
last day had come. So hot 
was the fire that her men 
were driven from their guns 
and flames began to appear. 

Then she, too, was run 
ashore and her flag was 
hauled down. It was just an 
hour after the chase began 
and she had gone twenty 
miles down the coast. Now 
she lay blazing redly on the 






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shallow shore and in the night she blew up. It was a 
terrible business, the ruin of those three fine vessels. 

There was one more Spanish ship, the Cristobal 
Colon. (This is the Spanish for Christopher Columbus.) 
She was the fastest of them all, and for a time it looked 
as if Spain might save one of her ships. 

But there were bloodhounds on her track, the 
Brooklyn, six miles behind, and the Oregon, more than 
seven miles away. 

Swiftly onward fled the deer, and swiftly onward 
followed the war-hounds. Mile by mile they gained on 
the chase. About one o'clock, when she was four miles 
away, the Oregon sent a huge shell whizzing from one 
of her great 13-inch guns. It struck the water just 
behind the Colon ; but another that followed struck the 
water ahead. 

Then the Brooklyn tried her 8-inch guns, and sent 
a shell through the Colon s side, above her belt of steel. 
For twenty minutes this was kept up. The Colon was 
being served like her consorts. At the end of that 
time her flag was pulled down and the last of the Span- 
ish ships ran ashore. She had made a flight for life of 
nearly fifty miles. 

This, you see, is not the story of a sea-fight ; it is 
the story of a sea-chase. Much has been said about 
who won the honor at Santiago, but I think any of you 
could tell that in a few words. It was the men who ran 
the engines and who aimed the guns that won the 
game. The commanders did nothing but run after the 
runaway Spaniards, and there is no great honor in that. 
What else was there for them to do ? They could not 
run the other way. 
240 

N. B. — Including the folios for the full-page half-tone illustrations there are 256 
pages in this book. 



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